Developing and Sustaining Partnerships with Foreign

Governments: From Vision to Practice

Craig E. Hastings, Deputy Director

LASPAU

Presenters Deirdre Evans-Pritchard, PhD

Senior Program Officer

Fulbright Foreign Student Program

AMIDEAST

devanspritchard@amideast.org

Craig E. Hastings

Deputy Director

LASPAU: Academic and Professional Programs

for the Americas

craig_hastings@harvard.edu

Sandra S. Rincon

Director of International Alumni Relations

Tilburg University

S.S.Rincon@tilburguniversity.edu

Jeannette Velez Ramirez

Chancellor International Affairs

Universidad del Rosario (Colombia)

Jeannette.velez@urosario.edu.co

Session Format

• Key ideas and examples

• Examples from two regions:

•Latin America

•Middle East

• 40 minutes of presentation

• 20 minutes Q&A

• Nonprofit organization affiliated with Harvard University

• Governed by an independent, inter-American board of trustees

• Established in 1964

• Regional focus on Latin America and the Caribbean

About LASPAU

• Design and administer international exchange programs

• Partner with higher education

institutions to strengthen teaching and learning (IDIA)

• Provide assessment tools for

graduate admissions (PAEP)

What we do

Brazil Science without Borders Program –

Scholarships for full Doctorates in the U.S.

Fulbright Foreign Student Program (Bureau

of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the

United States Department of State)

Instituto Colombiano para el Desarrollo de la

Ciencia y la Tecnología (COLCIENCIAS)

Primary exchange program sponsors

Organization of American States

Ministry of Education – FANTEL

(El Salvador)

FINCyT Doctoral Scholarships (Peru)

Becas INICIA Scholarships

(Dominican Republic)

Primary exchange program sponsors

What do effective partnerships look like?

• Funding appears to be

sustainable over time

• Vision/strategy appear to be

sustainable over time

• Sustainable funding and

sustainable vision/strategy are

aligned

Does funding appear to be sustainable over time?

• an initiative/program that was passed by

congress

• attached to a resolution or law so funds are

secured and properly allocated each year

• if part of a presidential plan, is it the beginning

of the presidential term?

• is the plan likely to survive new

administration?

Does funding appear to be sustainable over time?

• It is key to identify transparency about how

much money is committed to carry out the

initiative

•has it been documented and announced

publicly?

•where do the funds come from within the

government?

•when are they released and what is the

timeframe to execute them?

Do vision/strategy appear to be sustainable over time?

• is it an initiative that is aligned with:

• government´s multi-year plan

• development goals

• themes/priorities of national plans

Are sustainable funding and sustainable vision/strategy aligned?

• this is the most difficult piece to find but the

most important one for sustainable

partnerships

• When vision is aligned with funding there is a

high possibility that there will be good

leadership in place to carry out the

partnership (e.g. a specific unit/department,

staff and resources allocated to work on the

initiative)

Negotiations

• may take place while you are still

assessing funding and vision

• negotiate across multiple levels of

leadership

• identify partnership leader

• understand processes, politics

and policies

Drafting the partnership agreement

• Gather teams from both

parties

• Begin drafting both the

partnership agreement

AND the operational/work

plan

• The agreement is the

“What”

• The operational/work plan

is the “How”

After the partnership agreement is signed

• Implement operational/work

plan (the “roadmap” for the

partnership)

• Create additional items (from

operational/work plan) for

example, financial activity chart

• Ongoing communication of

partnership leaders/managers

• Training and exchange of

information

Looking out for “red flags”

• Violation of agreement or

operational/work plan

• High personnel turnover in

either party (why and what

is the plan in place to keep

partnership strong?)

• Lack of communication,

lack of response, or lack of

ability to make

decisions/changes needed

to sustain partnership

More potential “red flags”

• Change in leadership (head

of unit, partnership manager)

• Change in politics (political

party, new president,

structural change in agency

responsible for partnership)

• Financial crisis, political

scandals, natural disaster

and national demonstrations

in areas related to the

partnership (education,

environment, etc)

Challenges in sustaining partnerships

• Funder runs out of funds or they are re-

allocated to other programs due to emerging

needs

• Agreements and funding need to be renewed

every year

• Change of political party in government

Poster fairs of interest Thursday

• Country Fair: EducationUSA &

Embassy Dialogue Committee

MIG (10:00am-12:00pm)

• Updates on Country and

Regional Higher Education

Policies (10:00am-12:00pm)

• Enrolling More Sponsored

Students at Your Institution

(2:00pm-3:30pm)

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Tilburg University – Case

Study

Sandra Rincon, Director

International Alumni Relations,

Tilburg University, The

Netherlands

TILBURG UNIVERSITY

• Research Intensive University (1 of 13 in the

Netherlands)

• Specialized in Social Sciences & Humanities

• Ranks in the top 5 in Europe in Business,

Economics & Law

• 13,000 Students & 40, 000 Alumni

• Strategy to develop sustainable partnerships in

Latin America

• Universities

• Governmental Organizations

OUR PARTNERS

1. COLFUTURO - Colombia

2. ICETEX - Colombia

3. CONICYT – Chile

4. SENECYT - Ecuador

• Clarify what are the responsibilities of each

of the parties:

• Which benefits are included in the

scholarship?

• Tuition, travel costs, health insurance, visa

costs, etc

• Does the university offer a tuition waiver?

• Include evaluation of contract after first year

of implementation and then every other year.

• Appoint a person in your university who will

be the contact person for operational issues.

• Date of start and end of contract. Can it be

renewed? How?

CONTRACTS

FACTSHEET

List of contact persons -Admissions officers: letter of admissions

-Immigration Officer

-Scholarship Coordinator

List of programs included in the scholarship

program

Deadlines

Application

Visa

Arrival / orientation days

PROCEDURES

Review admission and visa procedure.

Discuss deadlines

Letters of admissions/ award letters

Finance

Will org. give scholarship money directly to

student?

How will the program be promoted?

on-site presentations

Fairs

Website (both univesity & organization)

CRISIS MANAGEMENT

What should be done in case of a crisis?

Who needs to be contacted?

Organization

Parents

Embassy

Does your university have any budget

reserved for any urgent cases?