UniPID at the University of Jyväskylä Global Responsibility Seminar

The aim of the seminar was to consider University of Jyväskylä's global responsibility through the following questions: What has already been done to advance global responsibility through education, research and university’s societal interaction? What else could and should be done? How the global responsibility actions at the JYU appear in the light of the Strategy for the Internationalisation of Higher Education Institutions in Finland? Does JYU live up to the objectives and expectations for universities’ global responsibility and development cooperation, defined by the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs?

Rector Matti Manninen opened the seminar and thanked the university's working group for development cooperation for their work and for the submitted proposal for action plan for global responsibility. In the seminar University of Jyväskylä’s development research and cooperation projects, including UniPID coordination, and North-South-South and HEI ICI projects, as well as the education in the field of global responsibility were presented. After the coffee break in the afternoon, the proposal for the University of Jyväskylä Action Plan for Global Responsibility was published and the panel, including representatives from the Ministry of Education and Culture, CIMO, JYU staff and UniPID, discussed the presented action plan in the light of the national strategic objectives and funding schemes, southern partners' role and expectations in the cooperation, as well as from the point of view of JYU researchers and staff. The importance of creating a clearer definition of global responsibility, specifically from universities' point of view, was highlighted throughout the discussion. 

After the seminar, UniPID held an info session on FinCEAL project for researchers focused on Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. The session started with networking exercises after which the various opportunities that FinCEAL offers to support research cooperation were presented. There was a lively discussion and plenty of specific questions from JYU researchers about the project activities were answered. 

Please find the detailed programme of the seminar below:

Our Global responsibility: University of Jyväskylä

Time: Thursday 9^th January, 2014, at 12–16. Place: Agora, Ag Auditorio 2

12:00 Opening,Rector Matti Manninen, University of Jyväskylä

12:15 Global responsibility activities at the University of Jyväskylä

• Finnish University Partnership for International Development, UniPID, Johanna Kivimäki,Coordinator, UniPID
• Experiences from the Master’s programme in Development and International Cooperation, Alumni Jaana Hirsikangas and Claudine Ambe
• Center for the Promotion of Literacy in the Sub-Saharan Africa, Heikki Lyytinen, Professor, Department of Psychology
• Music, Education and Cultural Identity, MECI, Pekka Toivanen, PhD, Department of Music
• Urban Renewal and Income-Generating Spaces for Women and Youth in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Laura Stark, Professor, Department of History and Ethnology
• Capacity building for the development of arapaima farming in Peru, Juhani Pirhonen, Lecturer, Department of Biology and Environmental Science

Chair: Tuija Koponen, Head of the International Office

14:00 Coffee break

14:15 University of Jyväskylä Action Plan for Global Responsibility, Elina Lehtomäki, Researcher, Faculty of Education

Panel discussion: Global responsibility: Are we up to the challenge?

• Tiina Vihma-Purovaara, Counsellor of Education, Ministry of Education and Culture
• Annica Moore, Senior Programme Adviser, CIMO
• Eva Kagiri, FinCEAL Project Coordinator, UniPID
• Prasad Kaparaju, University Lecturer, Biological and Environmental Science

15:50 Closing remarks and way forward

16:00 End of the Seminar

16:15 UniPID’s FinCEAL info session and workshop for researchers focusing on Africa and the Latin America and the Caribbean, Eva Kagiri and Kajsa Ekroos, UniPID

17:30 End of the workshop