Coordination meeting within the framework of the project Erasmus+ «Enhancement of higher education and corporate sectors integration in accordance with new social environment – ENINEDU» (2016-2019) took place in the White Hall (409) of the library of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University on February 15-16, 2018.

Al-Farabi Kazakh National University is the coordinator of the consortium since October 2016. The participants of the project are two universities from the Republic of Kazakhstan – Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, L. Gumilyev Eurasian National University, three universities from Russia (Russian University of People’s Friendship, I. Turgenev Orel State University, Samara State University) and four European universities (University of Santiago de Compostela (Santiago de Compostela, Spain), University of Nice Sophia Antipolis (Nice, France), Athens University of Economics and business (Athens, Greece), University of Sopron (Sopron, Hugary)).

The goal of the project is to study the practical importance of modern methods, their role in the curriculum, and measure the learning outcomes; prepare an integrated standard in the business-university cooperation system, suitable for each partner country; analytical studies on the national standard legislation in the EU countries on cooperation between universities and business.      

The purpose of the Coordination meeting is to discuss the current issues of the project activity, to provide the reporting and current activities of the project, the definition of tasks for 2018 and the project's prospects, the speeches of university coordinators - the discussion of the progress of the project at universities, the nearest project activities, planning and coordination of work, discussion, issues and answers, summarizing the meeting.

A wide range of participants was represented at the Coordination Meeting. Following coordinators and representatives of universities were present: Enrique Lopez Veloso (Spain), Tamas Czegledy (Hungary), Theodora Trachana (Greece) - online, Valentina Kalygina and Yury Moseykin (Moscow, Russia), Irina Maslova and Boris Maslov (Orel, Russia), Zotova Anna (Samara, Russia), Kuangaliyeva Tursynzada (Astana, Kazakhstan); as well as representatives of employers: Shagambayeva Aigul – first category expert at The National Chamber of Entrepreneurs "Atameken", Nurbaev Duman – managing director of JSC “Al-Saqr Finance”, Dabylova Malika – leading Specialist of Career and Business Center in Al-Farabi KazNU, and members of the research team.

In his welcome speech M. Burkitbayev, the first vice-rector of al-Farabi KazNU, acquainted the participants with the goals, objectives of the project, the main activities.

The coordinator of the Erasmus + program in Kazakhstan is Tasbulatova Sh.U. made a welcoming speech, indicating the significance of the project for Kazakhstan, Russia, and the EU.

The project coordinator Shomartova Sh.A. highlighted the main results of the working group activity for the first year of the project implementation and future activities in the new year, as well as tasks for 2018 and the project's prospects.

The project coordinator from the University of Santiago Compostela (Spain) Enrique Lopez Veloso made a presentation "Training of Partner Country HEI’s academic and administrative staff on implementation of acquired business-HEI cooperation methods in study process."

The project coordinator from the University of Sopron (Hungary) Tamas Czegledy delivered a presentation «Analytical research on benchmark of national legislation in EU countries with regard to HEI collaboration with business ".

The project coordinator from the Athens University of Economics and Business (Greece), Theodor Trachana, made a presentation through on-line broadcasting: "University business: presentation of positive EU practice in cooperation with universities".

The project coordinator from al-Farabi KazNU (Kazakhstan) Zhidebekkyzy Aknur made a presentation "Report on the implementation of the project for the first year in al-Farabi KazNU."

The project coordinator from the Eurasian National University named after LN. Gumilev (Kazakhstan) T. Kuangaliyeva made a presentation «Experimental test run of different configurations of the system elements in Partner Countries HEI’s ".

Coordinator of the project from I.S. Turgenev Orel State University (Russia) Maslova Irina delivered a presentation " University-business Webinar: the presentation of best EU practices in HEI-business cooperation ".

A member of the working group from al-Farabi KazNU Erkin Nazarbay made a presentation "Establishment of business centers and purchase of equipment."

Within the framework of the Coordination meeting, there was a discussion, and the results of the meeting were summed up. The EU legislation on practical education is one of the most advanced in the world and therefore is an excellent benchmark for carrying out productive changes in the legal framework of partner countries on this issue. Due to differences in education, technologies, social environment between the EU countries and partner countries, participants of the Coordination Meeting discussed the methods most applicable in the Russian and Kazakh markets. Selected methods of cooperation with business universities will be formed into a system aimed at bridging the gap between the needs of employers and the preparation of universities. The resulting system of cooperation with business universities will be designed to increase the competence of students in all universities with some variations.

The project participants will prepare a joint report, which will reflect the encompassing experience of interaction with business and the use of practices in EU education. The report will contain full information on this issue - a description of the mechanics of interaction, examples of cooperation, examples of curricula with modern methods, and examples of project evaluation.