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"'Educational exchange can turn nations into people, contributing as no other form of communication can to the humanizing of international relations'. Senator William Fulbright As the debate on internationalisation of higher education grows stronger, so does the interest in mobility not only of students, but also of staff. This is likely to intensify in the coming months, as the European Commission's new Erasmus+ programme, starting in 2014, promises more opportunities and funding for higher education and teaching staff to study, train and work in another country. Indeed, higher education staff will account for a significant percentage of the 1 million beneficiaries of a mobility period funded by the programme between 2014 and 2020. Staff mobility is seen as a vital and often cost-effective means of creating 'internationalisation at home' - enabling students to (in)directly experience another higher education culture on site. It is also widely believed that staff mobility has an additional value in acting as a catalyst for student mobility. "

The key messages in this brief are as follows: 1) Engineering can help Africa unlock its huge potential for economic growth and development and make faster progress toward the Millennium Development Goals. 2) However, there is a serious lack of engineering capacity in Africa and heavy reliance on imported expertise in engineering. 3) Higher education institutions need to change their approach to teaching engineering so that graduates are creative problem-solvers. Engineering courses also need to be oriented towards market and development needs. 4) Women are under-represented in engineering education, constituting less than 10 percent of the student population in Ghana, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe in 2010. 5) Few African countries have established a robust accreditation system. In addition to improving national accreditation, regional accreditation of engineering professionals should be encouraged so that engineers have greater mobility within Africa. 6) A proposed World Bank initiative, the Partnership for Skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET) will build capacity for technical, vocational and higher education in African countries.

"TVET experts from the European Union met in Brussels on 17 November to discuss the preliminary findings of a study on the Internationalization of TVET in EU countries, and the European Commission's role in this. The purpose of the study is to map policies and practices from the EU, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) member states (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland), Australia and five International Organizations that support international cooperation in TVET, including UNESCO. A set of recommendations for future actions at the European and national levels will be included in the study's final report. UNESCO was represented at the meeting by Katerina Ananiadou, programme specialist at UNESCO-UNEVOC. The study was commissioned by the Directorate-General for Education and Culture and carried out by International http://www.icfi.com. The Commission and the contractors gathered feedback on the preliminary findings from national and international experts. Their feedback will be incorporated in the final version of the study, which is due to be published in December 2014."