Laurea and UNAE in Paraguay join forces to improve students' internationalisation skills

Laurea and Universidad Autónoma de Encarnación are deepening the cooperation started in the HEIComp project.

News31.1.2025

Helmut Schaefer and Nadia Czeraniuk, founding directors of UNAE, and senior lecturer Elina Wainio from Laurea.

Laurea UAS and a private university in Paraguay UNAE (Universidad Autónoma de Encarnación) will deepen their cooperation through COIL (Cooparative Online International Learning) funding over the next three years. This cooperation will focus on developing students' internationalisation skills and promoting pedagogical innovation.

Nadia Czeraniuk and Helmut Schaefer, founding directors of UNAE, visited Finland in January to visit Laurea and sign a cooperation agreement between the two universities.

LbD pedagogy at the heart of cooperation

The HEIComp project, coordinated by Laurea, has developed higher education in Brazil and Paraguay to better meet the needs of the world of work and thus promote students' employability. A key approach has been the LbD model of development-based learning, known as "Working life connected learning".

UNAE has been actively involved in the previous project and the success of this collaboration has provided a strong basis for future collaboration. Participation in the HEIComp project has provided the University of Paraguay with many valuable lessons:

– A new model combining theory and practice has changed the role of teachers and broadened their competences. We want to extend this model to all our training programmes, says Nadia Czeraniuk.

International competencies and working life contacts

A new partnership is now being launched to bring together students from Finland and Paraguay. The aim is for a group of UNAE students and teachers to come to Laurea for a study visit during the coming spring and autumn semesters.

The aim of the cooperation is to strengthen the international competencies of both Laurean and Paraguayan students, their ability to operate in a global environment and their understanding of different cultures. All this is aimed at promoting the students' employability.

– Participating in international cooperation opens up a whole new world of opportunities for our students and broadens their perspective on the world beyond Latin America, says Nadia Czeraniuk, Rector of UNAE.

– This is very valuable not only for our students and our university, but also for the city and region of Encarnación.

In Finland, the COIL cooperation is partnered with Planmed Oy, a manufacturer of medical equipment, and the JCI Metropol Chamber of Commerce for Young People. Both partners consider internationalisation skills to be a very important work-life skill that helps to open up new opportunities in a globalised working and business world. The partners are interested in sharing their own international experiences with students, who in turn will prepare guidelines for international interaction.