During 20-22 June 2023, the Adventist University of Collonges hosted the first EUD Higher Education Council with the participation of rectors, presidents and administrative directors of EUD higher education institutions.
The meeting, initiated and organized by the EUD Education department, had Dr. Lisa Beardsley-Hardy, director of education at the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, as the special guest onsite while the other lecturers joined the program online.
The meeting agenda included training seminars ("I will go" in Higher Education and Made in His image: The task of redemptive education - Lisa Beardsley-Hardy; Leadership and Holiness - Marius Munteanu; Higher Education Network - Gordon Bietz, NAD associate director for Higher Education; Education Resources: Creation Sabbath, Faith & Science Grants, GRI RC - Noemi Duran, director EUD GRI branch; EU Funds for Education - Eliza Spătărelu, departmental director of Adventus University, Cernica); Business Development for an Adventist Campus - Ben Thomas, SPD, director of technology operations and strategy); Youth alive - Katia Reinert, GC Health Ministry associate director). The agenda also provided a valuable time of learning and sharing the realities and challenges that EUD universities face. The presentation of each university created an opportunity to enrich the participants’ experience, to share ideas for more effective work at all levels, and to pray together for the sensitive issues.
Participants also enjoyed a campus tour and the unique natural setting of the University of Collonges and had the opportunity to discuss plans for future collaborations between their institutions.
Of particular interest were the prospects for the development of joint projects under the EU Erasmus programme, which Adventus University of Cernica (Romania) has been running for over a year. The program has facilitated short-term mobility for students and teachers in several countries of the world including Spain, Austria, Turkey, Czech Republic, France, Peru, Germany, Hungary, and Portugal.
The participants of the EUD Higher Education Council agreed to continue discussions to develop the collaborations initiated on this occasion, with the next planned meeting to be held online at the end of July 2023.
