In March 2006,
Ecorys Research and Consulting approached
Romijn Research and Development (RRD) for an evaluation study. The
study concerned a sectorial and programme evaluation of the Asia-Link programme
as this has been operated by the European Commission since 2002.
The objective of the Asia-Link Programme is to foster regional and multilateral networking
between higher education institutions in Europe, and those in developing countries in Asia.
The goal of the programme evaluation we were to conduct was
- to assess the programme to date
- to propose improvements and/or new options for the future.
Aside from RRD (Dr. Clemens Romijn), Ecorys had asked Terry Foulkes, and Dr. Ranjana Srivastava to join the evaluation effort. Both work as independent consultants, Mr Foulkes from the UK and Ms Srivastava from India.
The Evaluation Team has conducted three weeks of fieldwork in Asia in the course of which it visited eight Asian countries and almost two weeks of visits and discussions in eight European countries. In total over fifty universities were visited and we were able to study thirty projects in depth. Discussions were also held with Delegations in the countries visited, with EC offices, representatives of Members States, Ministries of national governments, other government agencies, NGOs and other relevant stakeholders.
Major results of the evaluation are as follows:
- The programme attains a significant impact in terms of improvements in the quality of Human Resources and labour market participation of students. Examples of areas where impact is achieved are: Sensitization of municipalities, local governments to relevant issues; strengthening the export sector and enhancing business contacts between Europe and Asia; New opportunities for academia-industry interaction.
- In terms of sustainability of the results, it appears that the programmes have created strong international networks that ensure that results of the projects are sustained and expanded. These partnerships are reflected in various forms: Participation in seminars and conferences; Placement of PhD students in partner countries and joint supervision of thesis; Joint undertaking of training programmes and participation as guest faculty in partner institutions; Joint research programmes with existing partners and joint research programmes with various institutions in Europe.
In all we have concluded that the programme is unique among donor programmes for Asia and is innovative in supporting genuinely useful university linkages in two important regions in the world.