A meeting of the AL4LIFE project consortium was held, dedicated to activities on establishment of institutional framework for involvement of alumni in university activities
On November 9 and 10, a meeting of all partner institutions in the AL4LIFE project ("Western Balkan entrepreneurial university alliances - keeping in touch for lifelong relationships") was held at the University of Bologna. The University of Montenegro is the coordinating institution. The realization of the three-year project started on 1st of March this year, under the programme Erasmus+ CBHE (“Capacity building program in higher education”).
Partners in the project are the University of Bologna, the Autonomous University of Madrid, the University of Ljubljana, the University of Donja Gorica, the University of Mitrovica and the International Business College in Mitrovica.
The general goal of the project is the establishment, strengthening and institutionalization of alumni structures at partner institutions from the Western Balkans, the inclusion of alumni in teaching, mentoring and research process, as well as in strengthening the links of these higher education institutions with the economic sector. By involvement of alumni, study programs and teaching methods will be improved, primarily through strengthening the segment of practical training and entrepreneurship, while in cooperation with career centers certain activities will be carried out with the purpose of strengthening the professional and personal skills of students, all with the aim of better matching with the needs of the labor market, i.e. better employability of graduates.
The project envisages the establishment of alumni structures and the appointment of responsible/contact persons at all faculties of the University of Montenegro, the creation of a webpage dedicated to alumni, their organization and activities, the creation of software for managing the alumni database and the interactive web platform for communication with alumni community, etc.
The project will also contribute to the improvement of research capacities of the UoM, of their funding and commercialization, with the support of the Alumni Research Chair and the Alumni Scholarships Club, which will be established for the purpose of connecting research excellence with the innovative potential of the economic sector.
The creation of the UoM’s Alumni Strategy 2024-2029 is the first activity for the purposes of establishing the aforementioned institutional framework for the formal inclusion of alumni community in educational, research and developmental segment of the UoM. The meeting in Bologna was primarily dedicated to the preparation of the Alumni Strategy of the partner institutions from the Western Balkans.
Prof. dr Sanja Peković – Vice-rector for Internationalization, dr Srna Sudar – Head of the Project Office, and Ana Dragutinović – Head of International Relations and Mobility Office participated at the meeting on behalf of the University of Montenegro.
At the meeting, the University of Bologna presented a report on the models, strategies and functioning of alumni organizations at the three partner institutions from the EU, which participate in the project. At the invitation of the organizer, representatives of the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium), the University of Helsinki (Finland), Leiden University (Netherlands) and the international association CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) attended the meeting, who presented a comparative view and best practices regarding EU alumni organizations models and priorities. Each partner institution from the Western Balkans presented the current state of connections with alumni community, and then the work on preparation of the Alumni Strategy, after which all partners reviewed the current state of the project and agreed on future activities and obligations.
Project website: www.al4life.ucg.ac.me