Queen's University has been on a journey of change, and revival. Queen's seeks to reframe its influence, image, and partnerships around the world by "solving the world's most significant and urgent challenges". Starting with the change in strategic direction that underpins global engagement as one of the main pillars and solidifies the importance of the university to look beyond its borders and to engage abroad in a comprehensive and mutually beneficial manner. Translating this to practice can seem like a challenging task. For this reason, Queen's sought the advice of international organizations (including the International Association of Universities) and extensive internal stakeholder consultations to develop the next iteration of its global engagement strategy, launched in spring 2023. Throughout the process, global partnerships have taken on a more significant meaning than ever before. It has become both a foundational value of how Queen's approaches global engagement and the first objective of the new strategic plan for global engagement.
Touching on the issues of inclusion, equity, diversity, and Indigenization, as well as intentionality, and sustainability Queen's seeks to establish reciprocal, mutually beneficial and bidirectional partnerships. To establish these, we are working in collaboration with university stakeholders on partnerships, establishing advisory councils on new regions of strategic importance and regions of continued strategic importance, developing principles of engagement with international partners, and redefining collaborations of what could be possible where student mobility is not an option. Partnerships are also underpinned by Queen's involvement in the Times Higher Education Impact Ranking on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals where Queen's has been in the top ten for the past three years, including the number one in North America in the most recent ranking.
To support our institution, and faculty members, a series of partnership development resources have been created and made available to the Queen's community to facilitate the process of global partnerships development. As part of the new approach to global partnership management and development, resources developed include a guide to partnership principles on what it means to have mutually beneficial partnerships. Internal re-organization of partnership management within the central international office that involves regional leads for all the newly indicated priority regions and the development, and implementation of regional advisory councils to help support the university's engagement. As well, there is the development of new website content through a regional hub approach that provides an overview of existing collaborations (including academic, research, and other), a list of funding opportunities that are known, regional organizations that Queen's is a member of, and partnerships highlights that showcase incoming visitors or longstanding partnerships.
This presentation will provide an overview of the development process of our global engagement strategy, with a specific focus on the areas of global partnership management and development. We will share best practices, opportunities and resources for partnerships moving forward. We will provide a few examples of successful partnerships in regions that we would like to promote and that have developed into strategic cooperation as well as reciprocal and bi-directional partnerships.

A política nacional atual de Finlândia para a internacionalização do ensino superior e pesquisa (2017-2025), com o título Better together for a better world - Melhor juntos para um mundo melhor, foi elaborada por um grupo de direção nacional, incluindo ampla representação dos atores de educação superior, ciência e inovação de Finlândia, com ministérios e agencias nacionais, universidades e suas redes, organizações profissionais de acadêmicos e representantes dos estudantes. A implementação das políticas tem sido orientada por um fórum nacional de internacionalização, também com ampla participação do setor. Este fórum forma uma rede de redes nacionais, um modelo de seguimento e apoio de internacionalização das universidades que tem atraindo interesse internacional. A estratégia nacional foi também avaliada no ano 2021, incluindo um questionário com 173 respostas de representantes de diferentes organizações. Esta avaliação orientou por sua parte a formulação da Visão da internacionalização até 2035 em 2022. O objetivo desta apresentação é compartilhar e analisar as experiências e o modelo participativo da Finlândia em criar, implementar e monitorar políticas nacionais para promover a internacionalização de ensino superior e pesquisa.

Through the internet, distances were shortened and modern education was forced to reflect on how to prepare students to become global citizens while maintaining their local identities. Virtual exchange programs foster internationalization at home - IaH - instead of employing the traditional mobility that is reserved for a minority of students. The ultimate ambition of virtual exchange practitioners is to promote understanding across national and cultural divides. This presentation aims to share a collaborative practice among two universities, one located in the South of Brazil - UNICENTRO - and the other in the United States - Pennsylvania State. The collaboration process began in the second semester of 2023 and it is still in progress in the first semester of 2024. 36 students are involved in this project, 16 from the U.S. and 20 from Brazil. Besides presenting the process through which the virtual exchange developed, this communication will show the ICT (Information communication technologies) that were used and share the accomplishments and challenges faced during this process. Another significant goal of this presentation is to inspire and motivate others to pursue IaH initiatives such as virtual exchanges. It is worth mentioning that this virtual exchange experience stems from a previous FAUBAI conference, 2023 in Belo Horizonte, in which an example of Internationalization at Home was presented by another Brazilian professor. Participants who attend this communication will reflect on ways of promoting understanding across cultures and will take specific steps back to their home HEIs and adapt to their respective contexts. 

The Africa by Bus Programme is aimed at facilitating mobility into the Southern African Development community for a period not exceeding five days, excluding travel days.   The elements of programme are;
Academic Cultural Community Engagement and student developmentSportAs the name of the programme suggests, mobility is exclusively by bus across the border. Partner university students are invited to participate in this programme to further their Africanisation ambitions. 

Abstract Summary:
O profissional do futuro precisa de habilidades que precisam ser desenvolvidas  durante a sua graduação. A proposta dessa seção é  destacar a experiências inovadoras de ensino como uma oportunidade para a parceria internacional e desenvolvimento de habilidades e competências nos estudantes.


 INTELI, uma faculdade jovem que emergiu como um centro de excelência acadêmica comprometido com a inclusão social e oportunidades internacionais. Focado em um robusto programa de bolsas, o INTELI abre portas para estudantes de alto desempenho acadêmico de todo o Brasil, oferecendo não apenas suporte financeiro para mensalidades, mas também auxílio para moradia, alimentação, cursos de inglês e equipamento tecnológico.

Este ano, uma parceria estratégica com a Zuyd University of Applied Science permitiu a criação de um programa de mobilidade, proporcionando aos estudantes a oportunidade de participar de intercâmbios enriquecedores. A identificação de afinidades entre as instituições foi possível devido à adoção do Project Based Learning como metodologia, evidenciando a abordagem inovadora e prática comum a ambas.

Três talentosos estudantes bolsistas foram selecionados para participar do intercâmbio no próximo ano, imergindo-se na cultura acadêmica e social da Zuyd University, na Holanda. Esta iniciativa não apenas fortalece os laços internacionais, mas também enriquece o aprendizado dos estudantes, preparando-os para desafios globais e promovendo uma compreensão intercultural mais profunda.

A proposta dessa seção é explorar como as parcerias internacionais e projetos sociais estão moldando o futuro dos alunos, proporcionando oportunidades únicas e preparando-os para se destacar em um mundo cada vez mais globalizado. Uma discussão inspiradora sobre como a educação pode ser uma força transformadora na construção de sociedades mais inclusivas e sustentáveis.