Pink tiles, routes, and a whole lot of otherness

We’re back from Toulouse, the Pink City, where last week we had the opportunity to attend the 34th EAIE: European Association for International Education Conference and Exhibition! Blushing tiles do justice to its nickname and got everyone in a cheerful spirit as we soaked in the vibrant discussions and shared ideas over the course of four days. This year’s ‘en route’ theme brought together a record of over 7,300 Higher Education professionals from 110 countries for an edition that took twists and turns through the history of Higher Education and landed on ways to prepare the sector for future generations.

As usual, the EAIE Conference was an opportunity to connect with UNICA members, partners, and friends. In particular, the informal get-together with the community of the International Relations Officers group was a highlight as we had the chance to meet colleagues from around the network who tirelessly fashion many hats in the pursuit of international higher education.

Sharing, Learning… Philosophizing?

As we are on the verge of celebrating 35 years of the UNICA Network, we feel this year’s conference has put us ‘en route‘… inward. The session on “The philosophical foundations of our work in internationalisation”, with EAIE (former) President Piet Van Hove (University of Antwerp, Belgium) and Flora Bastiani (University Toulouse 2 Jean Jaurès, France), propelled the beginning of a voyage into the roots of our work. Starting from French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas’ ideas of “otherness” - of finding oneself in the encounter with the other – this session took us on an existentialist little voyage on why we, international educators, do what we do. ?At some point, one of the speakers revealed that “Bringing people together is our work as International Officers”. It is likely that everyone in the room resonated with these words, and we have certainly tried to live up to this as a network that currently represents the voice of 55 universities in capital cities. After all, capital cities are a real playground when it comes to encountering that ‘otherness.’ Capital cities are uniquely positioned at the intersection of global and local dynamics, where diverse perspectives, cultures, and identities converge. This idea was certainly there in 1990, when 15 universities, building on their distinctive features of location and quality, decided to come together for networking and cooperation. Since then, the confluence of a small group of ‘others’ has extended into further otherness, as the network grew geographically, thematically, and strategically, bringing us to today’s setting, with 55 universities from 42 capital cities of Europe, combining over 150.000 university staff and 1.500,000 students. That’s a whole lot of otherness!

So… where are we going?

Roaming around the exhibition—meeting partners, recognizing friendly faces, and getting to know others—or navigating the many sessions on internationalisation strategies, the social role of universities, European University Alliances and the European Degree, the digitalisation leap, innovative pedagogical approaches, and even science diplomacy (just to name a few), we were reminded that our mission is never truly complete. We may predict, study, speculate, prepare, and plan for countless scenarios, but there will always be a degree of unpredictability. Yet, we’re ‘en route’ together, and that seems like a pretty good place to be.

As we seek to prepare future generations for a world in constant flux, our engagement with 'otherness' remains both timely and essential.

For while there is one other, there will be UNICA for one another.