Towards an Evaluation Framework for International Strategic Partnerships between Universities

A Co-Creative Approach

Abstract

Formalised international strategic partnerships between universities are relatively new. Such agreements include both research and education and cover a range of departments across the partner universities. As these partnerships are expected to contribute to strategic goals and have great impact, the question of evaluation becomes prominent.

This paper presents a project dedicated to the development of a framework for the evaluation of international strategic partnerships. The project was a collaboration between international officers of six universities (of which five in Europe) and academics of two of these universities. It was decided to co-create a framework. The academics guided the international officers through an evaluation of a strategic partnership and developed and tested the framework on the go.

The result is an evaluation framework that is very different from what the international officers initially envisaged. Yet it has changed the way in which evaluation thinking is integrated in the practice of international partnerships in these universities.