2nd Information Bulletin
Dear Reader,
Since the edition of the 1st Information Bulletin in June 2013 the La MANCHE project partners have been busy working and supporting project activities around the network of which you could read more in the following pages. Over the last six months we have learnt a lot about leadership and change management in academic settings and have completed some major deliverables in the project like the External Assessment Report in Work Package 2 and the trainings for trainers in Work Package 5. Having entered the second project year in October 2013 and with the upcoming Intermediate Report due in April 2014, we have been also busy looking back and reflecting on the results achieved and lessons learned.
The first year of project cooperation has proved to be a learning curve for the majority of the project partners. The last fourteen months have been an exciting journey not only towards the achievement of our joint project objectives and goals but also towards improved intercultural understanding and collaboration with institutions with diverse profiles and corporate culture. I like to believe that the La MANCHE project is changing the institutions in the consortium by making a difference for their academic communities and helping them unlocking their potential to become better.
The La MANCHE project is dedicated to leadership, education and change. As the 2nd Information Bulletin is being edited, the world is paying tribute to Nelson Mandela, one of the great leaders of our time who has changed his country, Africa and the world we live in. The stories of his leadership style have inspired millions of people and are being taught and repeated in leadership courses in classrooms around the globe. We are honoring him by quoting in the following pages some of his most famous motivational thoughts and messages on leadership, education and change. He often said that he was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.
Knowing that good leaders are not born but made, leaves us hopeful and with a lot of plans for work during the second year of the project. Over the next months a large number of capacity building activities like trainings and public lectures will be completed to improve leadership skills at the Partner Counties institutions and to empower academics and students to become more involved in the decision making processes at the universities. By starting effectively the processes of project results exploitation and sharing those with the broader audience, we will also engage in a sustainable dialogue with the stakeholders in higher education in the La MANCHE countries. On behalf of International University College, the project lead organization I would like to wish all project partners and current and prospective stakeholders and friends a peaceful Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
Let’s keep up our good work!
Yours faithfully,
La MANCHE Project Coordinator
