Alumni organisation from Kosovo visiting Austria

The organisation for Kosovar-Austrian alumni (OKAA) was recently founded in order to foster networking and collaboration beyond the study or research visit in Austria. OKAA has formed as part of the three-year project HERAS+, which aims at supporting and diversifying the higher education and research sector in Kosovo. More information on the project and its implementation can be found here.

Networking opportunities, which are one of OKAA’s main objectives, arose multiple times during its founding members’ visit to Austria from 23^rd to 25^th January. After being greeted by snow upon arrival in Vienna the previous day, the group of Kosovar delegates was welcomed at the House of the European Union by MEP Lukas Mandl on Monday. Following lunch at a local restaurant, the group visited the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research.

Graz was OKAA’s destination on Tuesday: Both the Centre for Southeast European Studies and the alumni & career department of the University of Graz gave presentations on their activities. The group also met up with the Honorary Consul of Kosovo and was invited to WUS Austria’s main office. There was a bit of time left for some sightseeing before boarding the return train to Vienna. On Wednesday, the OKAA members got to visit the Communication Hub at the University of Vienna, learning about the university’s 10,000 new alumni graduating each year and how to find a joint basis of communication for such a diverse group of people from different academic disciplines. The last item on the agenda was a visit to the OeAD main building, where the department for International Cooperation in Higher Education presented their alumni activities to our Kosovar guests. Full of impressions and new ideas, the OKAA members returned to Pristina.

A couple of days after the visit, the selection board meeting for the 3^rd call of the HERAS+ scholarship programme took place. Several new scholars from Kosovo will be coming to Austria over the course of the next months, who will hopefully expand OKAA’s alumni network in the future.