La ACUP participates in the LEADHER program promoted by the IAU

The ACUP, in collaboration with the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and Kenyatta University, participates in the program LEADHER of the International Association of Universities (IAU) that promotes cooperation in learning through international partnerships between its members. This program, which emphasizes both the North-South and South-South cooperation, this year, is focused on strengthening the capacity and management of research of the involved institutions.

The aim of the project presented by the ACUP, Kenyatta University and the UOC is to analyse the use of digital technologies, specifically Web 2.0 tools, to answer two main requirements that doctoral training in sub-Sahara is currently confronting: the supervision of doctoral students and the visibility of research. Through the use of Personal Learning Environments for PhD Student (Personal Learning Environments for Doctoral Students - PLED) web spaces equipped with customized software and communication tools, and search and social media tools that allow students gather and organize relevant information to their network studies and to spread their own materials, the project will explore new models of effective supervision. In this sense, the PLED can be used as a tool to create a digital identity for doctoral students, serving as a digital public "notebook" as well as a personal repository that facilitates the creation of a virtual network among colleagues working in the same sector, including mentors and tutors.

In this framework, a delegation with ACUP and UOC representatives will travel to Nairobi, Kenya, to develop several meetings and to discuss the PLED initiative, which will include a pilot with a Kenyan University student. Subsequently, a Kenyan delegation will visit Catalonia in order to participate, among other meetings, in the innovation seminar on doctoral supervision that will be held in Barcelona.

LEADHER project: http://www.iau-aiu.net/content/leadher