International Lifelong Learning Network
Activity from April 2015
Education Scotland
Outward
15-17 April 2015, Lithuania: Maureen Mallon and Barbara Daly to attend a workshop to
support Lithuanian colleagues to build their knowledge of early learning inspection.
20-22 April 2015, Budapest, Hungary: Cath Hamilton to attend the Second ELINET Adult
Learning Team Seminar to showcase the work of Education Scotland in this high-profile
European project and learn from other partners in developing European guidelines for all-age
literacy.
21-23 April 2015, Spain: Suzanne Hargreaves to attend the Cantabrian Schools of Health in
Europe (SHE) forum.
9-12 June 2015, Netherlands: Suzanne Hargreaves to attend a Preparation meeting for
Study Trip to Scotland as per the invitation from the Netherlands to meet the steering group
tasked with organising the forthcoming Study Visit to Scotland. There is a draft programme
similar to the HWB programme organised last November for another delegation from the
Netherlands, including the Minister for Education. Susanne will also take the opportunity to
learn more about the Netherlands sexual health programme which has good outcomes for
Dutch young people. They have developed both an App and website. Jan Faber, a Dutch
colleague has been asked to present on this work at the International HWB conference in
September in Glasgow. This is an opportunity to work with him in the preparation for this.
Inward
April, Lithuania: Ministry of Education and Science, Proposed visit from educators for a
seminar on early years education.
17 April, Qatar: Visit for the Supreme Education Council (SEC). Hosted by the Council of
British International Schools (COBIS) to gain a deeper understanding of school inspection and
school evaluation systems within Scotland and England. In addition to Education Scotland
22-24 April: European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education - Raising
Achievement project.
May, Australia: Proposed visit by Claire Loads a qualified Teacher of the Deaf from South
Australia would love to have a look at how itinerant services work in Scotland and also any
bilingual programs for deaf children.
May, Sweden: Proposed visit by a group of teachers to learn about the Scottish education
system and in particular English as a second language teaching (for adults) as that is what
they specialise in, although they teach Swedish as a second language.
2 June, Australia: Lesley Richardson from the Department of Education Tasmania Particular Interest in ‘More Choices, More Chances’ strategy, partnerships and approaches
towards the development of policies and practice.
2015, India: Proposed study visit for education managers from India on Teacher
Management and Development and School Standards, Evaluation and Planning.
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2015, Jamaica: Proposed visit by the Ministry of Education - very interested in seeing how
your system is organized, particularly for special education support. While they are in the
process of moving toward modernization and transformation of their education sector.
2015, Qatar: Proposed visit for Qatari group of head teachers and inspectors. This group is a
pilot for a proposed long-term and expansive project by Ritish Careers Training College which
would involve partnerships with a range of Scottish education partners to support the
development of Qatari educational practice and aid capacity-building within education across
the Middle East and North Africa.
Quality Assurance Agency Scotland (QAA)
9-11 June, Glasgow: QAA Scotland hosts Innovation and Enhancement in Higher Education,
the 13th Enhancement Theme Conference (http://www.enhancementthemes.ac.uk/themesconference/registration )
September: QAA Scotland and SHEEC will host a week-long visit by a delegation of Deputy
Vice-Chancellors with responsibility for education from the Republic of South Africa who are
interested in our approach to enhancement and the Enhancement Themes.
QAA’s next TNE in-country review will be of UK provision in Malta, Greece and Cyprus in
2015 (with the overview report published early in 2016)
April, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: QAA is presenting a workshop, in partnership with HEFCE, at
the 6th Annual International Exhibition and Conference on Higher Education.
May, The Hague, Netherlands: QAA Scotland will be participating in the Quality Assurance
Network meeting.
The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE)
15 April: A Connected Scotland partner meeting will take place to discuss arrangements for
activity around the three priority countries of China, Brazil and Malaysia.
29 May, Edinburgh: Visit from Professor Chunli Bai Hon FRSE, President, Chinese Academy
of Sciences (CAS). Professor Chunli Bai will visit the RSE to be formally admitted as a
Honorary Fellow and to sign the Fellows roll book. It is hoped that he will be available to
attend a number of additional high level meetings.
31 May: Deadline for RSE Bilateral Exchange awards
29–30 June, Edinburgh: The RSE will be hosting a meeting of the ALLEA board.
1-3 July, Edinburgh: A delegation from National Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
including Vice President, Professor Liu Congqiang will visit the RSE.
July, NSFC-RSE-CAS: New paradigms for future collaboration in science and innovation
Scotland There will be a follow-up Chinese delegation visit to Scotland following the RSE led
high-level delegation to China in December 2014. The meeting will discuss how academia,
business and policy could be better integrated, with the aim of supporting economic growth
and innovation in Scotland and China. The meeting will involve Fellows and leading experts
from one or more of the recently created Scottish Innovation Centres (in Stratified Medicine,
Industrial Biotechnology and Sensors and Imaging Systems) while NNSFC and CAS will bring
highly influential figures from across China. Participants will have high-level experience of
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science and technology development, technology transfer and commercial exploitation of
research.
August 2015: The RSE will be holding a joint workshop with the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (NSFC). The topic of the workshop is ‘Sensors and Imaging Systems Hyper spectral imaging technologies. Following this workshop, participants will have the
opportunity to apply to the RSE-NSFC joint project scheme.
31 August: Deadline for RSE Bilateral Exchange Awards
September, Edinburgh: The RSE will be holding a joint event, in Edinburgh, with the Royal
Society of Canada on the topic of constitutional change.
September, Edinburgh: There will be a follow-up RSE / Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
(CASS) Workshop to the May 2014 workshop held in Beijing on Urbanization – Smart Cities,
Sustainable development and Reform of the public sector. Following this workshop,
participants will have the opportunity to apply to the RSE-CASS joint project scheme.
Autumn, Edinburgh: MacCormick European Lecture 2015
Autumn, Edinburgh: The Royal Society of Edinburgh and French Embassy in London will be
holding a joint 2015 Franco-Scottish Seminar. The topic for this workshop will be "Energy
conversion and storage: Fuels to electrons and electrons to fuels”.
w/c 2 November, Taiwan: The RSE will be holding a joint workshop with the Ministry of
Science and Technology, Republic of China (Taiwan) (MOST). The topic of the workshop will
be neuroscience.
30 November: Deadline for RSE Bilateral Exchange awards
The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA)
May, Boston, Massachusetts, USA: SQA will exhibit at the National Association of Foreign
Student Advisers (NAFSA) conference.
April, San Antonio, Texas, USA: SQA staff will attend the annual American Association of
Community Colleges conference.
April, Washington DC, USA: SQA will meet with the Scottish Affairs Counsellor for the
Americas.
21-24 June, British Colombia, Canada: SQA will present a session on Diploma to Degree at
the British Columbia Council for International Education (BCCIE) Summer Seminar.
May, Myanmar: SQA will host an event offering advice and guidance on HNDs and giving
SQA HND centres a platform to promote the SQA HND to potential new students.
May, Kuala Lumpur: SQA will host a support event for its international centres. The Chief
Executive will deliver the keynote address at the event.
May, Oman: SQA will start a new project which will run for approximately a year and will
support the Oman Academic Accreditation Authority (OAAA) to develop a qualifications
framework for Oman.
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Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS)
July: We will chair the Network of Experts on Student Support in Europe (NESSIE) Meeting.
This is normally attended by representatives from over 25 countries. The main aim of this will
be to plan and organise the new work plan for 2015-2017.
Recent Activity: January – March 2015
Education Scotland
Inward
24 February, Singapore: Ministry of Education Singapore, Delegation from the Ministry of
Education Singapore to learn the design of learning experiences and resources that support
ICT-enriched student.
2 March, Netherlands: Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, Delegation from the
Ministry of Education, Culture and Science to learn from Education experience.
Outward
3–5 January, Ohio, USA: Alan Armstrong attended the ICSEI 28th International Congress for
School Effectiveness & Improvement.
2-3 February, Hamburg, Germany: Cath Hamilton attended the ELINET Adult Learning Team
Seminar to showcase the work of Education Scotland in this high-profile European project and
learn from other partners in developing European guidelines for all-age literacy.
12-13 February, Germany: Carol Macdonald attended conference on Develop work on
‘professional dialogue’ during inspection around the theme - Discuss Inspection procedures
with SICI.
8-13 March, Seoul, Korea: Elizabeth Morrison and Ian Menzies attended a STEM Study Visit
- Studying on Professional learning and capacity building initiatives.
15-20 March, Vienna, Austria: Joan Mackay attended a Study Visit with the British Council.
19-20 March, Germany: Sally Stewart attended a workshop on Sustaining School
Improvement after Feedback with AQS and SICI International Workshop.
QAA Scotland
December 2014: QAA Scotland welcomed Professor Andrew McAuley, Deputy Vice
Chancellor (Education) from Southern Cross University in Australia.
January: Joakin Palestro from the Swedish Higher Education Authority for a study visit.
Spring: We hosted a PhD student from Romania for six weeks who was using the
enhancement led approach to quality in Scotland as one of her principal case studies.
March: Regular liaison meeting between QAA and QQI (Ireland).
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RSE
RSE / National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Joint Projects Eight eligible
applications were received and considered by the RSE and NSFC. A total of six Joint
Projects were agreed and will be offered in 2015.
28 February: Deadline for RSE Bilateral Exchange awards
6-7 January, RSE: The RSE held a joint workshop with the Ministry of Science and
Technology, Taiwan on the topic of Sensors and Imaging and their Applications including
Medical Areas. Following this workshop, attendees are able to apply for funding through the
RSE bilateral exchange scheme.
SQA
SQA is currently working in Jordan, Oman, Kazakhstan, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia on ongoing contract activities undertaken on behalf of, and funded by, governments, ministries and
international development organisations.
March, China: SQAs Chief Executive gave a keynote address at the Study Abroad Forum.
February, Bahrain: the Chief Executive attended the Quality Assurance and Accreditation
Committee.
February: SQA hosted an event for USA universities interested in exploring progression
pathways for HND students. During the three day programme delegates met with a range of
SQA staff and also visited a Scottish college and university.
February 2015: A delegation from the Public Education Evaluation Commission (PEEC) in
Saudi Arabia visited SQA as part of a wider visit to attend the SCQF International
Conference in Glasgow.
March 2015, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: SQA’s Chief Executive and senior staff attended a MoU
signing ceremony with PEEC. The MoU marks the start of the SQA/PEEC partnership to
develop the NQF for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
March 2015: SQA attended the national launch of the Saudi Arabia NQF project organised by
SQA and PEEC. This was attended by the Ministers of Education and Labour as well as over
100 delegates from government agencies employers and other stakeholders.
March 2015, Dubai, UAE: SQA hosted a CPD event for SQA centres in the Middle East.
April 2015: Representatives from the Indian National Accreditation Board for Education and
Training (NABET) visited SQA, to explore developments in Education in both India and
Scotland.
March 2015, China: SQA staff attended and presented at, the CSCSE-SQA Annual
Conference. This was part of the China International Education Exhibition tour event. The visit
included meetings with our partner organisations Chinese Service Center for Scholarly
Exchange (CSCSE) and Beijing Yinhong (BY).
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SAAS
12 March 2015, Helsinki, Finland: We attended the annual meeting of the Network of Experts
on Student Support in Europe (NESSIE). The purpose of this group is to promote the
portability of grants and loans in order to facilitate the greater mobility of students across
Europe. The annual meeting focused on sharing best practice in order to promote greater
mobility of students across Europe. There were 22 representatives in attendance,
representing 13 countries. Sweden, the Netherlands and Belgium/Flemish Community were
confirmed as the new co-chairing countries for the 2015-2017 period.
Other major International activity
RSE
Exchange Programme
The RSE’s International Programme seeks to increase Scotland’s research and development
connections internationally; and increase the number of world-class science and culture
researchers working in Scotland. The RSE administers exchange schemes to provide
researchers of at least post-doctoral status with short visit opportunities (normally up to four
weeks) to and from Scotland, with a view to developing relationships leading to collaborative
projects and levering further research funding from other sources. The deadlines for these
schemes are quarterly in late February, May, August and November. Between January and
April 2015 2 applications were supported by the RSE.
SQA
The following study visits took place between January and March 2015:

A group of school and college managers from Qatar undertook a two day study visit to
SQA in January, to gain an understanding of the Scottish educational landscape.

A study visit took place in March by a delegation from the Philippines comprising the
Under Secretary of Tourism, Technical Education Skills Development Authority and
Commission, to study UK pathways and linkages between vocational and Higher
Education.

A group of senior managers and educational stakeholders from Nigerian Board for
Technical Education visited SQA in January to gain an understanding of Scottish
vocational education and Quality Assurance practices.
SQA exhibited and presented at a number of conference between January and March 2015:

SQA attended the British Council, National Qualifications Frameworks conference in
Belgrade, Serbia in January.

SQA exhibited and presented at Sri Lanka's largest education and jobs exhibition in
January. The exhibition was attended by over 40,000 visitors.

SQA staff attended the annual Community College International Development
Conference in California, USA in February.
 SQA took part and contributed to the USA Commercial Service Virtual Education Fair
and Education Briefing in March.
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