EAIR Forum Cork 2024

Practical information

Track 6: Internationalisation and Sustainable Transnational Cooperation

Track Chairs: Dr Jean Van Sinderen Law, Professor Marijk van der Wende

Internationalisation and transnational cooperation initiatives provide a variety of routes to enrich institutions’ education and research programmes. Demands are increasing forgraduates with global experience equipped to collaborate and manage intercultural relationships and partnerships, and with the skills to compete internationally and innovate across borders, cultures, and economies.

Balancing the pressing issues of resources and funding with the potential for income generation through internationalisation brings to the fore important questions about sustaining higher education as a social good which also is bound to financial realities. The Track invites considerations around the following topics:

  • What forms of strategic internationalisation and transnational education collaborations are impactful in sustaining constructive tensions between the local and global and between effective cultural integration and cultural identity?
  • What considerations should universities have in determing an Internationalisation strategy and the strategic parternships required to operationalise same?
  • What key models of best practice exist for transnational partnership/relationship building?
  • The value to the workplace of graduates with transnational experience – an employers perspective?
  • Best models of learning and teaching for a super-diverse student cohort?
  • How do universities encourage, acknowledge and reward staff involvement in internationalisation?
  • With reference to the European Univeristies Initiative, what have been the key outcomes/benefits for transnational cooperation and what bottlenecks with respect to transnational cooperation have been revealed and what are proposed solutions?
  • On what basis do students decide which universities they will study, what are the guiding factors? For example is how institutions respond to the concept of impact/engaged research a factor which makes an institution an attractive place in which to learn and conduct research?
  • How involved in stimulating and funding internationalisation and transnational cooperation initiatives are, and should, the governments of European member states be?
  • Given the closing distance of the digital age in enabling greater connectivity and networking of institutions for education, research, and student mobility across the globe, what are the sustainability considerations of institutions’ international footprint in maintaining meaningful and deep partnerships?
  • Innovative approaches to virtual and blended learning? What strategies and initiatives are being adopted by institutions in their internationalisation efforts to sustain and embed value-based education and research in the face of rising innovation and increasing demands for the economic utility of knowledge?

This track is chaired by:

Jan Van Sinderen


Dr Jean Van Sinderen Law

Marijn Vd Wende


Professor Marijk van der Wende

Utrecht University | The Netherlands
Distinguished Faculty Professor of Higher Education at Utrecht University’s Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance.

Track Details

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Sustainable Travel Ideas for the EAIR Cork Forum

Travelling from Europe

Visitors from Europe can travel via Eurostar from Paris to London and from there by train to Wales and by boat to Dublin. Travellers can then take the train or bus to Cork. Alternatively, there is a daily boat connection from Roscoff or Calais (in Northern France) directly to Ringaskiddy, Cork.  

Link for Direct Ferries: https://www.directferries.ie/

Travelling from the UK

There are ways to travel to and from Ireland without flying, as there are train and bus services that link with ferry services across the Irish Sea which connect several ports in England, Wales and Scotland with Irish ferry ports of Rosslare, Dublin or Belfast with ongoing travel by car, bus or train. 

Cross County Rail Services

Where taking a flight is necessary, attendees are encouraged to consider direct flights to Ireland (Cork, Dublin) airports and to use cross country rail services where a direct flight to Cork is not possible.

Link for Irish rail: https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/

Travel options in Cork

Cork is a city where active travel options are both available and encouraged – walking and cycling.  Visitors to Cork City can get a 3 day TFI bike subscription.

Link to TFI Bike Subscription: https://www.bikeshare.ie/pricing-and-subscriptions.html

All accommodation options and EAIR Forum venues in Cork can be accessed easily by foot. 

Offsetting Travel Emissions

Forum attendees are invited to offset the unfavourable impact of air travel by combining attendance at the Cork forum with other meetings in Ireland, the UK and Europe. 

Forum attendees who wish to consider sustainable travel options may also wish to combine their attendance at the Cork EAIR Forum with their annual holiday and by so doing minimise the number of air flights taken in 2024.