Representatives of Turkmenistan took part in the Annual Conference of Higher Education Reform Experts (HERE), which was held in early December in Barcelona. The purpose of the conference is to discuss issues related to the greening of higher education and exchange information and practice on priority areas of current reforms. The main participants at the conference were national experts from European and partner countries, as well as coordinators of national Erasmus+ offices.

According to the press service of the Erasmus+ national office in Ashgabat, Turkmen experts Shohrat Bashimov (Turkmen State Financial Institute) and Bayram Jumayev (Turkmen State Energy Institute) shared their impressions of the conference and meetings with colleagues.

Shohrat Bashimov says:

“The most difficult, but also the most interesting part of the conference was the sectional session (Debating the findings of the SPHERE study on greening) to discuss the results of research conducted by European universities within the framework of the greening of European higher education. Participating universities are actively involved in protecting the environment: developing the environmental infrastructure of campuses, separately collecting waste, saving water and electricity. Universities of Turkmenistan are also actively involved in numerous environmental initiatives, however, I think that developing its own strategy in each university would help strengthen the position of sustainable development of our universities, especially in matters of environmental protection and ensuring environmental safety”.

Bayram Jumayev:

“The conference in Barcelona was very useful and educational for us: we were able to discuss with international partners new opportunities for cooperation in Erasmus+ CBHE projects in the field of internationalization, STEM education and greening universities”.

Let us note that the conference was organized by the SPHERE (Centralized Support for Higher Education Reform Experts) team with the support of the European Educational, Audiovisual and Cultural Agency (EACEA).