The LEAD project is an ambitious programme financed by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ programme. It focuses on ‘capacity building in higher education on governance and academic leadership of Chinese and European universities in the context of innovation and internationalisation’.
 
In practice, it will consist of developing and implementing training for academic leaders to help them make better decisions in areas such as policy making, strategic planning and change management. The aim is to support and enhance internationalizations of higher education institutions. Another goal is to foster a better understanding of academic leadership approaches in the EU and China and strengthening the cooperation in these regions.
 
International
The LEAD Project has been initiated in October of last year and will last till October 2018. VUB has been appointed as coordinator of this partnerschip, which includes 5 European partners and 5 Chinese partners, together with 10 associated partners from Europe and China.

Save the date
The conference on March 21st signals the take-off of the LEAD project in a grand manner, with the participation of several rectors and vice rectors from European and Chinese universities. Paul De Knop, rector of VUB, will deliver the opening speech. In addition, he will address the topics of University Strategy Development at the first workshop the day after.
 
The workshops on the 22nd and 23rd of March make up the first of six series that the LEAD Project will support. The second series of LEAD workshops will take place in Beijing and Yunan in November 2016.
 
The programme of the conference can be found here and these of the workshops here.