Seminar on regional activities in England

Although of not direct relevance to overseas students a recent seminar http://stadium.open.ac.uk/stadia/preview.php?s=31&whichevent=1321 (only available within the OU) on the above is noteworthy because it:

• confirmed the appeal within some areas of OU opinion for a global international strategy
• did not go into detail on the possible situation for Continental European students
• confirmed the importance of 'enterprise' and partnerships with local businesses (possibly seeing them as income generators separate from government), using examples in Finland and the Netherlands as possible models.
• (personal view) demonstrated the need for OUSA to review its role in this type of exercise (ie amount of representation, how OUSA reps feedback to students)

The seminar was very much an internal brainstorming session, so what actually happens next may well be different to anything suggested by the points I've highlighted above.

OUSA Conference: EIT call for tender

I haven't had any official reports back from Conference. Initial reports seem to suggest it was 'quiet', but I could be wrong.

In other news, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology has recently sent out a call for tender http://eit.europa.eu/ that may be of interest. The EIT was set up as a kind of rival to the MIT and similar places, with the aim of boosting Europe's knowledge economy.