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With the subsidy scheme VIS in het HO, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science aims to provide as many students at Dutch higher education institutions as possible with the opportunity to gain experience in an international orientation on subject and science through virtual international collaboration projects (VIS projects). In these projects, students in the Netherlands collaborate with students at institutions abroad to carry out a project together. The subsidy scheme will finance a total of 700 projects between 2021 and 2024 to support the design and development of the project.
At the end of 2021, the Ministry commissioned Dialogic to conduct evaluative research on the VIS projects (see here for the description of this research). This research follows the VIS projects through analyses of the subsidy applications and online surveys among project leaders (teachers and/or educationalists) and participating students. An interim report is delivered annually in October with the current status of the research.
For the 2023 report, the first four cohorts (September 2021, February 2022, September 2022, and February 2023) have been examined. A total of 254 VIS projects have been financed to date. Out of these, 214 projects have had the project leaders' survey completed, and 88 projects have been concluded. The report describes the 254 projects based on their subsidy applications, the 214 projects based on the online survey among project leaders, and the 88 completed projects based on student surveys.
In Round 1, collaboration is taking place with institutions from 31 different countries. This number has increased each year to 51 different countries in Round 4. Across all rounds, the main focus of collaborative partners is in North America and Europe. In total, over the past four rounds, collaboration has occurred with 264 institutions in Europe, 59 in Asia, 42 in North America, 36 in Africa, 26 in Central and South America, and 2 in Oceania. Institutions in the Caribbean have participated in seven VIS projects. The figure below shows the top twenty countries with which collaboration is most frequent.
The development of international competences is mapped out using student surveys. Students report significant progress in all categories, as shown in the figure below.
The majority of students state that they did not experience any challenges during the project. The most common challenges mentioned are lack of time for the project and having a poor working relationship with international partner(s).
Download the 2023 interim report here. For the report in English, click here.
Want to know more? Ask Max Kemman or send an email to visonderzoek@dialogic.nl.