The Impact of International Higher Education Aid on Promoting Intercultural Communication: Case Study of Erasmus+ in Palestine رسالة ماجستير

Abstract

rasmus+ programme is the biggest mechanism in funding higher education institutions in Palestine and elsewhere. It is the European Union programme that supports individuals and organizations as well. With an allocated budget of 16.5 billion euros, Erasmus+ has modernized, innovated and ameliorated the Higher Education. Furthermore, it has enhanced the governance and the internationalization of HEIs. Due to the lack of related studies conducted in Palestine on the importance and impact of Erasmus+ programme on higher education despite its substantial funding in this domain, the researcher has conducted this study to see the implications of this aid on the Palestinian universities. Purpose: The study aims at investigating the impact of Erasmus+ aid on enhancing intercultural communication in Palestine. Moreover, the researcher inspected the extent of Erasmus+ impact in helping in cooperation and intercultural communication. The researcher also investigated the impact of the Erasmus+ projects in bridging the socio-cultural gap between the higher education system in the Palestinian and the European institutions, and the projects’ contribution in promoting the cultural knowledge in Palestine and Europe yielding sustainable cooperation. Finally, the researcher measured the impact of cultural interaction among the higher education institutions at the individual, institutional and national level. Design/ Methodology/Approach: The researcher used the qualitative descriptive content analysis to sort and interpret all the gathered documents and templates that are related to Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility, ICM and the Capacity building in higher education CBHE projects. Moreover, the documents describing the impacts of Erasmus+ projects were coded into categories. The researcher described the impact of Erasmus+ on various targeted Palestinian universities which participated in Erasmus+ projects. Furthermore, the researcher VI used the section of “Impact” in EACEA’s template form while accumulating the data from Palestinian universities to describe the impact of Erasmus+ projects at three levels: - the individual level, the institutional level and the national level. Sample of the study: The researcher used the purposeful sampling to generate beneficial information through selecting and choosing seven of Erasmus+ projects that have impact and are conducted from 2015-2019 by various Palestinian Universities such as Birzeit University, Hebron University, An-Najah National University, University College of Applied Sciences, Islamic University of Gaza, Al Azhar university and Bethlehem University. The sample represents 41% of the accumulation of Erasmus+ projects which are 50 CBHE projects and 2200 ICM mobilities with a budget of 44 million euros. The sample consists of the accumulated documents and the interviews that the researcher has conducted between the coordinators of Erasmus+ CBHE projects and the director of National Erasmus Office in Palestine. Findings: From the analysis performed, it was found that Erasmus+ projects had impact at three levels. The main result at the individual level is that many graduates worked at the governmental and non-governmental sectors including the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research after the termination of their studies. On the other hand, at the institutional level, new Master’s programmes were established in Palestine for the first time such as: intellectual property, forensic computing and cyber-crimes. Lastly, at the national level, the governance of the universities was improved due to the involvement of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. This has shown that Erasmus+, through its projects and with the cooperation of the Palestinian universities and the interference of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, has succeeded in enhancing intercultural communication between Palestine and the regional countries in Europe and the Middle East. VII Recommendations: With regard to the results of the study, the researcher recommended to invest more in Erasmus+ to build the capacities of the Palestinian universities. In addition, another recommendation was to expand Erasmus+ programme in order to cover different sectors.