Eva Haug wins award for expertise with COIL

Barbora Urvanovska interviewed Eva Haug about winning this award.

The EAIE 2024 award for Outstanding Contribution goes to Eva Haug for her outstanding generosity in sharing her expertise with COIL, thereby significantly enhancing its global reach. As a dedicated volunteer of EAIE and a key member of Internationalization in the Home Expert Community, she is celebrated for her active engagement and invaluable contribution to the EAIE community.

You have recently received the Outstanding Contribution Award. Congratulations. What does winning the award mean to you?

Winning the award means a lot. It’s a recognition of my work, but also the field I represent; that of curriculum internationalisation and COIL/virtual exchange. I’m very happy that this award sheds some light on the important work that is done for COIL around the world.

You have received the Award for your outstanding generosity in sharing your expertise with COIL, thereby significantly enhancing its global reach. How did you approach COIL?

I started doing COIL as a practitioner, because I wanted my students to experience intercultural communication differences by collaborating with Finnish students. I still do COIL projects whenever I teach, which strengthens the professional development I have developed. Practice what you preach! My dream is that all students have the opportunity to do a COIL and for that we need many enthusiastic lecturers.

How long have you worked at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences?

Since 2003.

How do you approach your work, your students and colleagues?

I started at AUAS as a lecturer and I use those experiences in my current role as educational advisor. I love teaching, though, so I still teach 1 or 2 groups per year. I teach intercultural communication and I continue to learn from my students. This translates directly in my work as professional development trainer. After so many years in education, over 30 years, it’s rewarding and challenging to have educators as students. I enjoy working on the challenges of internationalising the curriculum and I feel passionate about making internationalisation accessible to all students.

You are a volunteer at EAIE, the European Association for International Education. What has led you to volunteer? When makes you feel fulfilled by volunteering?

I started volunteering over 6 years ago, because I noticed there was no representation of COIL/virtual exchange in the expert communities that curate the content of the conference. The EAIE is an inspiring community of experts in higher education and attending the conferences has helped me tremendously in my career, because of the networking opportunities and the sessions and workshops. Therefore, when I was asked to join the Expert Community Internationalisation at Home, I jumped at the chance.

You are a key member of Internationalization in the Home Expert Community. What do you do?

Actually, as of September 2024 the EAIE structure has changed and the Expert Communities have changed into Thematic Committees. I was elected to join the Teaching, Learning and Curriculum TC and internationalisation at home and COIL are some topics that are represented. The volunteers are the curators and sometimes content creators for their areas of expertise. This means we review conference proposals, write blogs and publications, engage with the relevant communities of practitioners and contribute to the EAIE Academy. Basically, I need to network a lot and keep my ear to the ground for relevant trends in higher education.

How do you perceive the alliance of European universities U!REKA at your home university?

Even before the EUA, I was actively engaged with U!REKA, especially with the Internationalisation at Home working group. For me, connecting and collaborating with our partners is key to do my work. As COIL coordinator, I’m always matching lecturers to international colleagues. Some 4 years ago, we decided to offer COIL training to all U!REKA lecturers and this has resulted in some great collaborative projects.

I’m looking forward to the opportunities our Alliance will bring; if we want to meet our goals, we need to upscale COIL and engage many more lecturers. I hope we’ll have COIL trainers and „champions“ within every U!REKA university, creating an U!REKA eCOILsystem.

What is the ICI project? Can you tell us more?

The Inclusive Comprehensive Internationalisation project is an Erasmus+ funded initiative and both the AUAS and Metropolia are involved, among other partners in Italy, Spain and Poland.

The project has resulted in a definition for inclusive internationalisation, a framework and surveys to critically analyse how inclusive our institution’s policies and practices are. We’ve developed a series of workshops, aimed at diverse stakeholders -such as administrators, lecturers, international relations, educational developers and students- to train the skills and mindset for an inclusive organisation.

What do you think U!REKA will bring to AUAS?

Of the many EUAs, there are not that many with universities of applied sciences. U!REKA is an opportunity for the AUAS and our partners, to enhance our profile. I’m especially excited about the commitment to international collaboration, to an online learning space and community and joint research.

What will it bring to your employees?

For U!reka to meet it’s targets, we need to engage many more employees than those that are currently aware of the project. I’ve seen, in the joint COIL workshops, how enthusiastically lecturers engage with their peers. It’s enriching to our teaching practice if we benchmark our courses and collaborate with people with other perspectives. The opportunities U!REKA will bring, can motivate lecturers -and other stakeholders- to innovate our curriculum.

What will it bring to your students?

Students will have an opportunity to expand -or start- their professional networks, they’ll have a better sense of what it means to collaborate internationally and what it means to be an European citizen. I strongly believe that if we know better, we do better. Think globally, act locally is not just something we say: students need the knowledge, skills and mindset to become global (or European) citizens. U!reka can be this first, critical step.

Is it easier to establish cooperation within U!REKA? Do you think that if this alliance were to not exist, it would be more difficult?

No, I think these partners have sufficient commonalities and shared needs, to cooperate with or without the alliance. U!REKA provides us with a shared commitment and a sense of urgency, that certainly helps.