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UNICollaboration vision and mission 2024-2028

The UNICollaboration Vision and Mission document is the result of a shared vision and desire, ensuring that the entire UNICollaboration team can work together towards achieving the identified objectives.
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UNICollaboration’s core focus

UNICollaboration is a non-profit association organised and existing under the laws of the Kingdom of Belgium. It is a structured association with a Management Board and a General Council, led by administrative staff and academics based mainly in Europe, but also worldwide.

UNICollaboration shares the vision that meaningful interaction between people from different backgrounds leads to self-awareness, empathy and intercultural understanding and is therefore essential for the development of the individual and the well-being of humanity. We see the potential of Virtual Exchange to facilitate such interaction across socio-economic, geographic and political boundaries.

UNICollaboration’s desire is to enable VE practitioners and enthusiasts/followers to work together and share their experiences on VE and its implementation through various programmes and initiatives, while also meeting new people and including them into the VE world, to be hence a place
where to meet other researchers and practitioners of internationalisation activities, among which VE.

UNICollaboration’s mission is to promote the development and integration of VE across all disciplines and interest areas in formal and non-formal educational contexts through opportunities for highly qualified professional development and personal growth, mentoring, research, advocacy and outreach, as well as dissemination. By doing so, UNICollaboration also aims to lead the way in research and training in Virtual Exchange to benefit institutions active in the fields of education and their pupils/students and to enhance Internationalisation at Home activities.

UNICollaboration’s core values

UNICollaboration’s core values and beliefs, as shared by the UNICollaboration’s team at large, can be summarised as follows:

  • Transparency and sharing
  • Rigorous scientific research
  • Supporting community
  • Trust
  • Respect
  • Sustainability
  • Diversity and inclusion
  • Social Justice
  • Appreciation of intercultural differences
  • Collaborative and proactive work, to increase Virtual Exchange visibility and share best practices

UNICollaboration 3 Uniquenesses: the 3 Unique Selling Points

There are 3 aspects which, according to the UNICollaboration’s team, differentiate us from other providers of VE training courses worldwide:
  • We are uniquely positioned to collaborate on (European) projects and initiatives involving VE, as we provide professional training on how to set up and design a VE, especially against the background of European HE.
  • We are a small close knit team who know each other well and value each other’s skills, and there is a good combination of skills and expertise regarding VE among our trainers, who are (former) university staff training other (university) staff, so well understanding their needs and challenges.
  • Cost-effectiveness vs other professional training courses in this field