Erasmus mobility award puts UON on the map in Central Asia

New opportunities for partnerships with universities in Central Asia have been opened for the University of Northampton’s Faculty of Business and Law, thanks to the Erasmus + 2019 Higher Education staff mobility award.

The Central Asia Tourism Entrepreneurship (CATE) Project, aims to develop knowledge and competencies for educational programmes in Entrepreneurship with a specialist focus on Entrepreneurship and Tourism.

The CATE project connects the University of Northampton with four universities in Central Asia; Ala Too International University, the Kyrgyzstan Economic University in Kyrgyzstan, Urgench State University in Uzbekistan and the Tajik State University of Finance and Economics in Tajikistan.

Through the partnership, the University of Northampton become the first British University to arrange a staff mobility in Kyrgyzstan, which was heralded by Chokusheva Gulnara, Coordinator of the National Erasmus office based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The Rector of Ala Too University expressed his delight to be the first University in Kyrgyzstan to host an Erasmus delegation from the United Kingdom.  He explained that Ala Too’s participation in the CATE project was a significant achievement in advancing the university’s internationalisation strategy.

The mobility funding enables the partner universities to exchange ideas and best practice for a focused period of 24 months. Project Lead and Subject Leader for Marketing & Entrepreneurship, Gill Gourlay explains: “We have been working with partners in Kazakhstan for three years and we are excited to extend this to other parts of the region.  Through the CATE project we are building a strong presence in Central Asia which is pivotal to our ambitions to establish a Centre in Entrepreneurship and Innovation.”