October 20, 1998

Letter of information from Unica's President and General Secretariat
to the University members

At the beginning of the academic year 1998-1999, we would like to send you our best wishes and give you some recent informations about the UNICA Network.

Secretary General
As of September 1st, 1998, UNICA benefits from the collaboration of a newly appointed  Secretary General, Ms Jeanine Hermans, from the University of Wageningen (Netherlands). Ms Hermans is responsible for the running of the Network. After nearly ten years of activity as UNICA's Secretary General, Ms. Chantal Zoller will step down at the next General Assembly in Vienna on November 27. Ms Nathalie Carton will continue to collaborate with us as assistant to the Secretary General.

UNICA's headquarters will remain at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, but the General Secretariat has moved into a new office as of September 15. The support of the ULB in establishing the new UNICA office has been significant and we are very thankful to Rector Jean-Louis Vanherweghem and his staff for their support.

New statutes
The new Statutes of the network will be discussed and adopted at the Vienna General Assembly.

European tender on evaluation
In September 1998 UNICA tendered for the contract on "The evaluation of the Cooperation Programmes in higher education and vocational education and training between the European Community and the United States and between the European Community and Canada", to be awarded by DG XXII. The tender was prepared at the UNICA General Secretariat in Brussels by academic staff of the University of Stockholm, the Freie Universität Berlin and the Secretary General. For this tender UNICA intends to cooperate with the EAIE (European Association of International Education). It is expected that the decision on the tender will be taken within three months. The UNICA proposal can be viewed as solid and sound, however the range of competitors is large.

Socrates Complementary Measures
Next to the tender, UNICA has filed a request for subsidy under the Socrates Complementary Measures in order to professionally update the UNICA Student Mobility brochure using a multi-media approach, in which published material supports publication and distribution via the Internet. This project is due to commence in January 1999. It will be carried out in close cooperation with the staff of the international relations departments at the member universities.

Rectors, Vice-chancelors and Presidents meeting
A meeting to reflect on the present and future of the network will take place in Brussels on March 20, 1999. The Rectors, Vice-chancellors and Presidents of the UNICA member universities will receive more information about this project before the end of October 1998.

Administrators mobility programme
The UNICA network intends to encourage study visits of administrative staff between member universities. Study visits should allow the participants to obtain an inside view of the organisation of the host university. Documents and entry forms will be sent to the member universities in the coming weeks.

EAIE Conference in Stockholm
An informal Unica meeting will be organised during the conference which will take place from November 21 to 24.

General Assembly in Vienna
UNICA's General Assembly will take place in Vienna on November 27, 1998.  Following the tradition started in Lausanne, besides the presence of the Rector, another delegate per institution will be most welcome.

Steering Committee meeting
The Steering Committee held its autumn meeting on September 28-29. The minutes of this meeting will be made available seperately. Two other important meetings took place in Bruxelles at the same period:

Meeting of the five Institutional Networks
The five Institutional Networks of Academic Co-operation met on September 28 at UNICA's initiative. The meeting was chaired by UNICA's President. Present were representatives of Coimbra, Santander, Utrecht and Compostella networks.

Meeting with the Director general of DG XXII
On September 29, UNICA's President, Secretary General and acting Secretary General had a meeting with Professor Domenico Lenarduzzi, Director General of DGXXII. The main theme of the discussion was the present and future roles of the Institutional Networks in European Higher Education policy.

Towards a UNICA Newsletter
In the future the UNICA General Secretariat will regularly inform the member universities about the plans, projects and activities of the network through a newsletter. Member universities will be invited to send in contributions for this newsletter.

Please note addresses as follows:

Président: Prof. Pierre Ducrey Secrétariat Général
Institut d'Archéologie et d'Histoire Ancienne UNICA
Université de Lausanne                                            Co Université Libre de Bruxelles
BFSH 2                                                                     Avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50 - CP 160/24
CH - 1015 Lausanne                                                 B - 1050 Bruxelles
Tél.: +41 21 692 30 41                                            Tél.: +32 2 650 44 45/49 91
Fax: + 41 21 692 30 35                                             Fax: +32 2 650 49 92
E-mail: Pierre.Ducrey@iaha.unil.ch E-mail: unica@ulb.ac.be