From April 2021 Erasmus+ Capacity Building project ‘‘Support for Innovative Methodology, Approaches and Tools for Teaching through the Medium of English in order to improve Educational Yield, Sustainability and Internationalization’’ (SMARTI) has started it’s implementation. Project team includes 15 partners from 6 countries and RTU is one of the four European partners that will help promote the excellence of education in a number of higher education institutions of Armenia and Russia by developing and implementing EMI educational programs and establishing EMI centers.
Partners of the SMARTI Project:
1. Technische Universität Dresden (Germany)- Project Lead Partner
2. Riga Technical University (Latvia)
3. Liverpool John Moores University (UK)
4. Universidade Catolica Portuguesa- Faculty of Biotechnology (Portugal)
5. Ogarev Mordovia State University (RF) –Lead Partner Russia
6. Irkutsk National Research Technical University (Russia)
7. Kazan Federal University (Russia)
8. Petrozavodsk State University (Russia)
9. Certification Association Russian Register (Russia)
10. Public Administration Academy of the Republic of Armenia (Armenia) – Lead Partner Armenia
11. Vanadzor State University after H. Toumanyan (Armenia)
12. Armenian National Argrarian University (Armenia)
13. Nalbandyan State University of Shirak (Armenia)
14. Goris State University (Armenia)
15. National Centre for Professional Education Quality Assurance (Armenia)
The activities of this project are aimed at the formation of a sustainable and effective teaching environment in English in higher education. The project involves the development of methodology and practical tools, as well as direct training of faculty to work in English as a teaching environment.
One of the key planned results of the project will be an establishment of corresponding preparatory centers within the Russian and Armenian universities, whose area of responsibility will include activities for additional training of teaching staff, consulting, methodological and linguistic support for teachers teaching in English.
In the three-day online kick-off meeting representatives from all of the 15 member universities of the Project Consortium presented heir universities and project teams, as well as the importance of EMI in terms of the internationalization of universities. A number of working issues were discussed, management was clarified, as well as changes conditioned by COVID-19.
The duration of the Project is three years (2021 – 2024) and RTU in the project will participate in consultations during development of teacher competence descriptors, and will be involved into tuning of the monitoring methodology for PC universities. RTU will also organise a 10 days EMI training for EMI participants, as well as develop EMI training modules for them. RTU together with partners from Certification Association Russian Register (Russia) and National Centre for Professional Education Quality Assurance (Armenia) will manage the WP3 – Quality assurance and will lead a quality assurance seminar in the 3rd year of the project. Moreover, RTU will contribute to all planning and regular work management procedures and will be involved in all international project meetings, the key interim and final conference of the project.
For more information about the SMARTI project, please, contact the International Projects Unit of RTU: Ieva Ziemele, ieva.ziemele@rtu.lv.
