Sebastian GRIES

Abstract: Student mobility and short-term collaborative projects are often funded as separate activities, yet both can become catalysts for lasting institutional connectivity. This session brings together experiences from the EU Mobility Programme for Myanmar (EMPM) and the EU-ASEAN Sustainable Connectivity Package – Higher Education (SCOPE-HE), alongside perspectives from Universiti Sains Malaysia, and President University Indonesia. It explore how hosting Myanmar and other Southeast Asian students can generate deeper cooperation among universities, and how short-term research collaborations can evolve into durable relationships beyond the funding period with three practical questions: How can mobile students contribute to connecting institutions rather than remain individual beneficiaries? How can universities navigate immigration, embassy, banking and admission barriers more consistently? How can time-limited collaborations be embedded in institutional strategies, expand staff networks, and lead to future joint initiatives? The focus is not primarily on research outputs, but on what universities learn when working across diverse regulatory, institutional, and cultural environments. Drawing on programme and university-level experience, the session will highlight transferable principles for equitable cooperation, stronger support systems, and sustainable regional partnerships. Participants will be invited to reflect on how human relationships, institutional trust, and collaborative problem-solving can transform mobility and temporary projects into long-term university connectivity. Learning objectives: - Assess how student mobility can generate wider institutional cooperation rather than benefiting only individual participants. - Identify practical approaches for addressing immigration, embassy, banking, admission, and student-support barriers affecting cross-border mobility in Southeast Asia. - Examine how short-term mobility and university collaboration projects can be embedded in institutional strategies, staff networks, and follow-up initiatives to increase their sustainability. - Compare lessons from EMPM, SCOPE-HE, Universiti Sains Malaysia, and President University Indonesia. - Apply transferable principles for building equitable, human-centred, and lasting university partnerships across diverse regulatory, institutional and cultural contexts. Target audience: University leaders, international office staff, mobility and partnership managers, student support professionals, programme designers, and policymakers seeking practical approaches to cross-border student mobility, institutional connectivity and sustainable university cooperation in Southeast Asia.