The U.S. Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) university consortium visits the UAB

On 10 June, the US Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) university consortium visited the UAB campus for the first time. This US academic consortium for the internationalisation of higher education brings together 14 US universities: Northwestern University, the University of Maryland, the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the University of Illinois, the University of Indiana, the University of Iowa, Michigan State University, Pennsylvania State University, Ohio State University, Purdue University and Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

The activities took place at the UAB Challenges Office, where the Vice-Rector for International Relations and Language Policy, Dr Laura Santamaria, welcomed the visitors and gave them an introduction to the UAB. Kim Rapp, Associate Vice President for International Relations at Northwestern University, presented the US delegation and the reasons for their visit. Katja Schustakowitz, head of the International Relations Area at the UAB, described the mobility management procedures for the Erasmus+ programme, the UAB Exchange Programme and the SICUE programme. Mireia Galí, the institutional coordinator for ECIU University, described the ECIU consortium and ECIU University itself. There was an exchange of experiences and questions on both sides.

At the end of their visit, the delegation, accompanied by international institutional relations officer Montserrat Alegre, toured the UAB campus and the facilities of the ICTA (Institute of Environmental Science and Technology), where they were welcomed by the institute's director, Dr Isabel Pont, and Dr Graham Mortyn, who explained the how the centre functions, and its strategy.