Between February 11th to the 15th of 2019 the Catholic University of Colombia hosted the official Erasmus+ presentation of the IMPALA PROJECT (Strengthening the IMPACT of Latin American Universities). The project seeks to strengthen the skills and qualities of Latin-American universities through new methodologies, which have been developed, by European universities linked to the project.
Durante los primeros 2 días, los líderes del proyecto presentaron a los representantes de 19 universidades europeas y extranjeras, los objetivos y el cronograma de trabajo que desarrollarán durante 3 años, periodo que dura el proyecto IMPALA. Así lo confirma Christophe TERRASSE, director de los proyectos internacionales de la European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) “Este proyecto de cooperación internacional, es financiado por la Unión Europea. Su objetivo es intercambiar información y experiencia entre universidades europeas y universidades latinoamericanas…Su papel principal es la creación de un sistema de medida de evaluación del impacto de las Universidades y su vinculación con su entorno local, regionDuring the first two days, the leaders of the Project introduced the representatives of 19 European and foreign universities, as well as the objectives and work schedule to be followed over the next three years (the time, which the IMPALA project should last). As said by Christophe Terrasse, Director for International Projects at the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD): “This international cooperation project is funded by the European Union. Its objective is to exchange experience and information among both Latin American and European universities… Its principal role is to create an impact evaluation system to assess universities and their correlation with their local, regional and national environment.
Over the following three days, a workshop called Understanding impact QA for HEIs was carried out. It was led by Christophe Terrasse, Director for International Projects at the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD); Patricio Montesinos, Director for La Unidad at the University of Valencia; Rafael Monteverde, Associate Professor to the Department of Projects Management at the University of Valencia; and Henrique Marques Ribeiro, head of the Planning and Support Office at Universidade do Porto.
The Director of Extension and Coordinator of the IMPALA Project at the Catholic University, Marcela Del Campo, PhD, commented on how important this Project is to Latin American universities: “This project’s objective is that 11 Latin American universities improve their quality framework in order to measure extension education impact… Other Erasmus projects related to the strengthening of research and teaching have been carried out, but now the aim is to work Extension, or Third Mission, as it is known in Europe, and in the developments, which are related to influence measurement. This is consistent with the work that is currently being done at the National Extension Network of Colombia.
It is important to stand out that the Office of International, Inter-Institutional Relations managed the participation of the Catholic University of Colombia in the IMPALA project, and that it is responsible for the management of the Extension. Delegates from the Planning Department of the University and from the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences are also participants within this project.
