University of Eastern Finland announces its Global Development Policy

The University of Eastern Finland has partners in 40 countries in the Global South. The strategic internationalisation goals of the university integrate sustainable development, promotion of equality and global responsibility into its research, education and societal interaction.

“UEF’s Global Development Policy, together with its strategy, guides the university’s global development engagement and is well-aligned to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals,” says Rector Jukka Mönkkönen.

The policy provides an explicit and overarching vision that provides context and rationale to the varied Global South engagements at UEF and will also provide improved practical support for development researchers at UEF, their networking internally and externally, improved communications as well as monitoring and evaluation of activities and their impact.

The university aims to advance and support engagement and internationalisation with partners in the Global South, especially in co-designing research and co-developing skills to tackle global challenges. Global responsibility and sustainable development are at the core of the activities.

“Through the policy, UEF aligns its global development activities to the Ministry of Education and Culture’s internationalisation policy and especially to its action plan that emphasises, e.g., global responsibility and the development of long-term and equitable partnerships with the Global South. We also align our global development activities to Finnish and EU development policy,” Global Development Manager Roseanna Avento notes.