Erasmus+ Staff Training in International Marketing and Public Communication in Belgium

On 25-29 April, two employees of LSMU International Relations and Study Centre (TRSC) – graphic designer Rokas Anisas and international programme marketing coordinator Evelina Mačiulskienė – visited Ghent, Belgium, where they studied good practises of international relations in higher education, international marketing and public communication following a professionally tailored programme and sharing experiences with other higher education institutions representatives that were co-participating in the event.

This Erasmus+ staff training entitled ‘International Communication, PR and Recruitment in Higher Education’ was organised by Artevelde University College (Ghent) and Karl de Grote University College (Antwerp). It was a 5-day training schedule, and each day different lecturers gave their presentations. 

Lectures were given by some highly reputable international marketing specialists for higher education. Willemijn Nieuwenhuys, director of Higher Education Services at the Council of International Schools (CIS) since 2014, having a wide range of experience in the field of international recruitment, introduced the group to the tools and resources for designing an international recruitment strategy.

Jemma Davies, who is a former employee of NAFSA (Association of International Educators) and currently working at SMRS (Education Marketing Agency) as an international education marketing manager, challenged the participants to think about what efforts they made until now for every step of the customer journey of an international student. Later it was explained what was done wrong or what could be done better.

The whole week was full of good experiences, taking aside lectures, working in groups and meeting other international relations professionals from other European higher education institutions. It was useful to hear how differently they work in their universities as well as how many similar problems they all share.

The LSMU members from TRSC have come back with a baggage of good practise ideas and are ready to share their newly gained knowledge with the rest of TRSC team and to implement the good practise at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences.

TRSC inf.