The Vice-Rector’s Office for Internationalisation, Mobility and International Projection (VIMPI) at the ULPGC encourages the university community and, in particular, teaching staff to participate in university projects for development cooperation, institutional strengthening projects, and research projects applied to cooperation. Likewise, it promotes the participation of students in the International Volunteering Support Programme and in the Support Programme for the development of dissertations in international cooperation matters, all with a view to improving their personal and professional development.
Aimed at improving the conditions and quality of life in areas with a lower development index through university cooperation projects in educational, cultural and social areas.
Specifically, encouraging the university community to participate in the invitations of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) – the main body managing Spanish cooperation, aimed at fighting poverty and encouraging sustainable human development – the invitations of the Canarian Government in matters of international cooperation, and the invitations of the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank, among others.
Developing and strengthening university systems is key to guaranteeing endogenous, sustainable growth based on knowledge and innovation in society. With this in mind, the VIC channels the ULPGC’s capacities to place them at the service of institutional strengthening at higher education and research centres in third countries.
To achieve this goal, the VIC actively participates in diverse cooperation programmes with higher education centres in a bid to strengthen these centres, supporting them at institutional and administrative level as well as with programmes that allow them to improve the education of their human resources.
As the ULPGC has a large panel of experts in a wide variety of areas, it can offer considerable support in international cooperation actions, acting as a highly specialised accompaniment in technical and education projects.
Today, these projects are defined within and are funded by the European Commission’s ERASMUS+ programme under Key Action 2: Strategic Associations covering the fields of education, training, youth and developing capacities in the scope of higher education.
The Research Projects Applied to Cooperation area is focused on encouraging the university community to participate in projects in third countries, mainly in Africa, with the desire that the knowledge of the ULPGC’s university community, especially that of its teaching staff and researchers who are gathered in more than a hundred research groups, will help generate projects that have an impact on society in the countries where they are developed. As such, this area carries out varied projects in which the recipients’ needs coincide with the specific investigations of ULPGC researchers. Therefore, these projects seek to provide a response to the challenges of third countries beyond strictly university-related scenarios, promoting the sustainable human development of the surrounding area.
In particular, this refers to projects of the First Invitation for the Operational Programme for Territorial Cooperation INTERREG V-A Madeira-Azores-Canarias (MAC) 2014-2020.
The ULPGC, as an institution committed to educating competent, cultured, responsible and caring individuals, through its cooperation office and its own funds, promotes international volunteering actions via different programmes open to ULPGC students or recent graduates who wish to stay in different countries for between 1 and 6 months in order to discover the life culture and reality of the countries to which they travel and, in addition, try to exchange knowledge and experiences.
Support Programme for dissertations in international cooperation matters
The Support Programme for ULPGC dissertations aims to encourage the development of dissertations, at the heart of the ULPGC, in the scope of international development cooperation within the different degree, masters and PhD programmes and studies offered by the institution.
The aim of the Support Programme for Final Degree Projects (PFC), End of Degree Projects and Doctoral Theses of the ULPGC is to promote, within the ULPGC, the elaboration of Works in the field of international cooperation for development, within the different Undergraduate, Master and Doctorate Programmes and Studies offered by the Institution.
