The UCOILD partners

The Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA), also known as the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, is the largest higher education institution in the Netherlands. With seven faculties spread across Amsterdam, it educates over 43,000 students and employs 3,200 staff members. The Faculty of Child Development and Education at HvA has a long tradition of preparing professionals for multicultural and international work environments. It offers 42 bachelor programs, including social work and primary school teaching, and eight master programs, with a strong focus on urban education. The department emphasizes continuous program evaluation and renewal, aiming to develop strategies for a diverse and inclusive society. The faculty’s expertise in early childhood, parental support, and special needs education highlights its commitment to understanding and contributing to a healthy, holistic society.

In its Strategic Plan for 2021-2026, the AUAS has chosen three courses of action: Sustainability, Diversity and Digitalisation. Internationalisation is important to AUAS, as our urban context is superdiverse, and we aim to educate professionals capapble of working inclusively with diversity. We therefore encourage ‘Inclusive Internationalisation’ and devote attention to international and intercultural aspects in our education and research programmes. HvA continues to focus on Virtual Exchange/COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) to enable large groups of students to gain international digital collaboration experience through this approach.

The Humanities and Education Faculty (Humanitate eta Hezkuntza Zientzien Fakultatea, HUHEZI) at Mondragon University has been an institution within the broad Basque cooperative movement since the establishment of the Teacher Training College in Eskoriatza in 1976. It is therefore a transformative educational institution with a collaborative profile. It is deeply rooted in its environment and culture, yet open to the world and other cultures. It is a non-profit organisation, recognised and officially declared as a social initiative. This vocation of involvement and transformation is demonstrated by the close relationships it maintains with many other institutions in the fields of training, research and knowledge transfer.

The Faculty of Humanities and Education is one of the four faculties that make up Mondragon Unibertsitatea, a cooperative university that belongs to the
MONDRAGON Corporation. The Faculty offers several teacher education degrees: Primary Education and Early Childhood Education. These degrees aim to train students to become teachers who can anticipate the educational needs of pupils. In this way, they will be able to respond to the present and future needs of children between the ages of 6 and 12
or 0 and 6, taking into account their family, social and cultural environment. The Faculty also offers a degree in Audiovisual Communication and another in Global Digital Humanities. In addition, various Master’s degrees are offered in related fields.

OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University – is Norway’s third largest university, with a student body of 23.000 students and 2000 employees. It is organized into four faculties and three research centers located at two campuses, one in Oslo and one in Akershus. Its location allows for a direct connection to urban challenges, fostering innovation for societal betterment. In its overarching research strategy OsloMet highlights both interdisciplinary and regional cooperation.

Despite its local focus, it remains globally active, contributing to international research and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those related to health, education, and reduced inequality. OsloMet values inclusivity, with many students being first-generation higher education learners or those from different countries. In relation to COIL project development, OsloMet has for years had a strategic focus on developing COIL projects and supporting staff competencies within this area.

The Faculty of Education and International Studies offers teacher education in a lifelong learning perspective qualifying for work in kindergartens, primary schools, lower and upper secondary schools, both pre-service and in-service teaching. The faculty also offers programs within multicultural understanding, interpretation and development studies. With the combination of international studies and Early Childhood Educational programs the faculty provides for a strong faculty link between internationalization and education that especially enables implementation of COIL curriculum change initiatives. The faculty also represents excellent research competence and solid experience with international collaboration with higher education institutions in a number of countries, among these several Erasmus+ projects.

University College Copenhagen (KP) offers 21 bachelor’s degree programmes in Copenhagen and the greater Copenhagen area. KP holds 20.000 students and 2000 staff members and is the largest provider of Early Childhood and Social education, Teacher education and Nursing in Denmark.

KP’s European Policy Statement 2021-2027 prioritises digitalisation and quality Early Childhood and care within Europe. A key policy target is to increase blended and online international learning projects. The KA2 Erasmus+ UCOILD project has therefore been strategically prioritised. The Department of Early Childhood and Social education has for years focused on ways of unfolding didactics that can support internationalisation of curriculum, and as an offshoot experimented with unfolding COIL projects with different European and non-European partners. The department has also tested COIL projects in practice within the project “Global Friendship kindergartens” where 3-6 year old Danish children had virtual international encounters with children from Ghana. In spring 2020 International Office, Department of Didactics and Digitalisation and Early Childhood and Social Education initiated a 1 year pilot to increase didactical knowledge on COIL and numbers of COIL projects at KP. All UCOILD participants from KP have been involved in this pilot as initiators and/or resource persons.

ETEN – European Teacher Education Network – is a Higher Education organization consiting of more than 60 universities, mainly from Europe. ETEN creates possibilities for building bridges across the world,  supporting collaboration and projects between partners in Higher education. As an associated partner in the UCOILD project, ETEN has provided an ideal platform for discussing and sharing the UCOILD project results with critical friends and future COIL partners.

The mission of ETEN is to:

• Provide knowledge and recognition of teaching and educational work at all levels;
• Provide status, respect, and inspiration for the teacher and social educator professions;
• Influence development and innovation of teacher and social educator education in the member countries;
• Learn about and promote understanding of the history, culture, values and traditions of the member countries, as expressed through teacher and social educator education;
• Be pro-active in essential matters concerning national and international debates on education in general and teacher and social educator education in particular