Benchmark visit from the Finnish National Agency for Education

Anne Hämäläinen and Päivi Jokinen from EDUFI came to Vienna from November 6 to 7 to learn more about the department's processes during a benchmark visit to the Department for International Cooperation in Higher Education. Anne Hämäläinen, Team Leader of the Department for International traineeships and postgraduate study grants, and Päivi Jokinen, Programme Manager for the EDUFI Fellowship Programme, were particularly interested in how the OeAD manages applications, maintains alumni relations and how to motivate students to stay in the country after funding. After a short presentation of the department and the work of the OeAD by Gerhard Volz, Head of the Department for International Cooperation in Higher Education, the two were given an insight into a selection of the OeAD's programmes, including Ernst Mach-ASEA-UNINET and Ernst Mach-worldwide, HERAS as well as APPEAR. We would like to thank them for their visit and hope that they gained a good impression of how the scholarship programmes are run.