Each year, a network of organisations administrating higher education, research, and capacity building development cooperation programmes meets in Europe to share insight, collaborate, and, where possible, align objectives. The Donor Harmonisation Group this year met on 11-13 June in Helsinki, Finland, for their annual forum, hosted by the Centre for International Mobility (CIMO).
The CSC was represented by Dr Matt Mawer, from the Evaluation team, and Dr Jonathan Jenkins, Director of Operations. They both participated in a forum panel discussion on ‘Effects on capacity building from scholarship programmes: What do evaluations and tracer studies teach us?’
With colleagues from SIU (the Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Education), Nuffic (the Netherlands), and DAAD (the German Academic Exchange Service), Matt and Jonathan led a discussion on recent evaluation research, the current state of methodology in evaluation design, and challenges for the future.
The CSC’s contribution to the panel was heavily informed by the Evaluation team’s recent study of research methodology used in evaluations of international scholarship schemes for higher education, subsequently published on the CSC website.
Colleagues from elsewhere in Europe and Africa updated the forum on developments in the Pan-African University and Erasmus+ (the extension of Erasmus Mundus beyond the EU), and on the growing network of higher education connections between China and Africa. A significant theme of the event focused on facilitating dialogue between implementers of cooperation programmes and scholarships and their funders, including contributions from the UK Department for International Development (DFID).
For further information, contact evaluation@cscuk.org.uk
