This year’s European Association for International Education conference attracted 4,200 attendees, organisers of the event say. 

The 23^rd annual conference was held in Copenhagen from 13^th to 16^th September and featured participants from over 80 countries. 

This year’s event broke previous records for the number of attendees, as well as boasting 25 workshops across the four days of the conference and 250 exhibitors covering half an acre of floor space inside the venue. 

The theme of this year’s conference was the continuing global outlook of European higher education institutions, with representatives from Asia and Africa attending the event for the first time. 

EAIE president, Gudrun Paulsdottir, said of the conference’s agenda: “In Madrid in 2009, our theme was 'Connecting Continents'. We used Madrid as a stepping-stone to reach out to Latin America. Today we can see the results of that. This year we have invited African and Asian associations to see how we can develop closer cooperation in the future.” 

Every year, two-thirds of the visitors are newcomers. This year, a large proportion of those new to the conference were representing Asian universities seeking to broaden their international standing. 

“Developments in higher education today are simply global," said Paulsdottir. "Even the EU's Erasmus Programme has gone global. And the way the EAIE is structured does not give us full control over such direction anyway. We depend on our professional sections for our programming and for them it comes natural too to look beyond the borders of Europe.” 

Posted by Jacqui Fox

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