Uşak University hosted the Erasmus+ Higher Education KA171 Project Information Meeting organized by the Turkish National Agency. Rector of Uşak University Prof. Dr. Ekrem Savaş, Vice Rectors Prof. Dr. Kenan Taş and Prof. Dr. Osman Birgin, Turkish National Agency Experts, academicians and international relations office representatives of participating universities were present at the event held at Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Congress and Culture Center.
While 200 participants from 97 universities attended the meeting, the event started with the opening speech of Rector Prof. Dr. Ekrem Savaş. In his speech, Rector Savaş emphasized the regional development-oriented university mission of Uşak University and said, “Our Leather, Textile, Ceramic Design Center serves important companies both from Turkey and abroad. Within the scope of our KA171 projects, we carry out staff and student mobility with our partners related to these specialization areas.”
Important Steps Towards Internationalization
Rector Savaş shared information about the achievements of Uşak University in internationalization processes and the 'International Week', which has been held for 5 years and has become a tradition. Stating that 170 academic and administrative staff have been hosted in the last five years and nearly 300 staff have realized Erasmus mobility, Rector Savaş said, “We have a total of 264 agreements with 93 universities from 16 countries within the scope of KA131. In KA171 projects, we have reached a total of 50 agreements with 38 universities from 20 countries. In addition, we have bilateral cooperation agreements with 92 universities from 33 countries from Japan to South America, Central Asia to Africa.”
General Coordinator of International Relations Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tolga Kargın expressed his pleasure to host the meeting and gave information about the projects prepared over the years and the success rates of these projects. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kargın thanked the team of the General Coordinator of International Relations and emphasized the contributions of their devoted work to the university.
Training Sessions and City Tour
In the rest of the meeting, Turkish National Agency representatives provided trainings on topics such as Evaluation of KA171 Projects Application and Results, KA171 General Information, Innovations and Application Form, KA171 Project Preparation and Writing Process and Analysis of Reasons for Not Receiving Grants. Participants' questions were answered during the trainings. The event ended with a group photo shoot.
On the second day of the meeting, a city tour was organized for the guests. Within the scope of the tour, Uşak Museum, Blaundus Ancient City and Ulubey Glass Terrace were visited and the cultural and historical richness of Uşak was introduced to the participants.