The Establishment of Centres for Excellence in STEM Education
The STEM centres are being developed in ten Asian universities from Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam which participate in the ERASMUS+ capacity building (Key Action 2) EASTEM project (Euro-Asian Collaboration for Enhancing STEM Education, No. 598915-EPP-1-2012-1-SE-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP), Work Package 3 (WP3).
The ten Asian partner universities at the same time are the target groups to develop and implement STEM education in their communities, establishing Centres for Excellence in STEM Education and promoting university-industry-school partnership and collaboration.
The development and establishment of STEM Centers are based on the data of conducted feasibility studies and international experience and on partner universities sharing of current status and good case practices. Exchanging best practices among European and Asian universities, each partner university can find inspiration to enhance STEM education at their institutions. The network of mutual exchange and learning will further the cooperation of EASTEM partners on established STEM education centres beyond the project’s lifetime.
STEM Centre Development Stages
At the initial stage, since January 2019, project partner universities have discussed the conception and have agreed that the establishing of the Centre for Excellence in STEM Education at partner universities will allow:
- to improve study programs quality through the introduction of integrated style of STEM subjects studies (development of integrated education modules);
- to modernize/renew the university curricula of study programs by including in them innovative learning and teaching tools, methods, for this purpose, to develop the students’ and teachers’ soft skills;
- to motivate and engage students in the study of STEM disciplines and this way to allow students to get more deeply acquainted with different STEM disciplines;
- to strengthen the link between academic (university) and work life (industry) environments, to develop competences needed for the job market;
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to strengthen partnerships and university-industry-school collaboration.
In the 1st year (January 2019 - January 2020) period of the project, the implementation of the WP 3 project task has started from the discussion and development of STEM Center Establishment Guidelines (preparation of 1st version of STEM Centre guidelines, discussion with university administration and stakeholders and adaptation of guidelines according to university requirements). The implementation stage has also included the staff for STEM centre development (preparation of training materials, developing training modules, development of innovative methodological tools) and, finally, the inauguration of STEM Centres in partner institutions and pilot implementation of the Centre.
During the EASTEM Vilnius meeting (2019) it was important to discuss the main issues related to STEM Center establishment and come to common understanding of what it is, what STEM Center model should be and what it is necessary to have and to do practically for its successful implementation. It was agreed on the common conception and guidelines.
The EASTEM project 2nd year (January 2020 - January 2021) is dedicated to Launching STEM Centres. The steps in the fulfilment of this task were: 1) the development of the common model of STEM centres; 2) the organisation of staff development for STEM centres; 3) inauguration of STEM Centres in partner universities.
Erasmus+ CBHE project „Euro-Asian Collaboration For Enhancing STEAM Education/EASTEM Nr. 598915-EPP-1-2018-1-SE-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP“ Home - EASTEM Project
