INTERNATIONALIZATION OF PhD STUDIES Gonzalez-Martinez, C 1., Pastor, Cl 1., Chafer, M 1. and Pittia, P 2. 1Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Spain), Instituto de Ingeniería de Alimentos para el Desarrollo. 2 University of Teramo (Italy), Faculty of Agricolture, Department of Food Science.

OBJECTIVE The objective of this work was to evaluate the importance of the establishment of an International PhD degree/collaboration and the current state of such programs in Europe.

METHODOLOGY To this aim, a short survey was developed, which consist of two sections: 1st part, questions about the implementation of doctoral joint programs, collaborations between other universities at doctoral level, International Doctoral degrees and about PhD courses taught in English in each institution 2 nd part of the survey, the perception of the importance of this International degree/collaboration was evaluated, together with the main barriers encountered to implement it.

A total of 55 responses were collected from the different partners, which belong to different higher education institutions from 23 countries (21 European or associated countries, 1 from Canada and 1 from Israel). Of the 55 higher institutions who responded to the survey, 24% have doctoral joint programs. Some of them are: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Iceland (University of Iceland, Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition), Italy (University of Sassari, Dip. Di Scienze degli Alimenti, University of Milano (UNIMI)), Portugal (Portuguese Catholic University, College of Biotechnology (UCP/ESB), University of Porto, Faculty of Sciences, University of Algarve, Department de Engenharia Alimentaria), Romania (UASVM University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Bucharest, Faculty bof Biotechnology), Slovakia(Slovak University of Technology, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology), The Netherland (Wageningen University) and Turkey (Mersin University, Department of Food Engineering).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Of the 55 higher institutions …only 9% have the International Doctoral degree implemented: Agricultural University Plovdiv (Bulgaria), National College of Vet Med, Food Science and Engineering (Nantes, France), University of Iceland, Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition (Iceland), Wageningen University (The Netherland) and Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (Spain). It is remarkable that not to have implemented such official degrees/programs is not related with the lack of international relationships: results showed that 56% of the institutions have already established collaborations between other foreign universities at doctoral level.

Of the 55 higher institutions … 43 % of the institution taught PhD courses in English language, thus contributing to the internationalization of their studies. Almost all the respondent (91%) stated that to have this International degree/collaboration at PhD level was important. The main reasons were related to the possibility of creation of an international scientific community; enhancement of networking opportunities, develop joint research, adding value, better job opportunities… RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

When asking about the importance of the establishment of an International degree/collaboration. The text of responses have let identified the following key factors shown in the Word-cloud generated by using these responses (Figure 1) RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Figure 1.

As key factors (Figure 1) the enhancement of language skills and other soft skills (communication, team working, knowledge of different cultures, etc.) by the students, to offer them a multicultural experience and a larger variety of future work environments They also pointed out that “the exchange of ideas at international level is crucial for science development”. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Figure 1.

It is also remarkable that for some of the respondent there is not a need for such official arrangements/programs because “informal collaborations with universities also occur without the presence of such structures”. The importance of developing these programs is probably related with the number of external/international collaborations that the institution has already implemented RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

When asked about the main barriers encountered to implement such International PhD degree/collaboration, they indicated as the most important that lack of financial resources, the presence of bureaucracy constraints (rigidity of the institution, national legislation, university rules …), lack of time and poor knowledge of foreign language These comments can be observed in the Figure 2, where a word- cloud graph was generated by using the text given by respondents. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

To combat the poor international cooperation between institutions, international links and cooperation should be encouraged through the establishment of joint doctoral programs and international doctoral degrees awarded by two or more institutions from different countries. CONCLUSIONS

Thank you for your atention!