Ala-Too International University associate professor Talant Asan uulu from Management department and Dinara Egemberdieva from International Relations Office visited Faculty of Business and Law of the University of Northampton, Great Britain, within CATE project that is supported by Erasmus + KA171 Staff Mobility Program. The Central Asia Tourism Entrepreneurship (CATE) project aims to develop knowledge and competencies for educational programs in Entrepreneurship with a special focus on Entrepreneurship and Tourism. Within the CATE project 4 universities from the Central Asia visited the University of Northampton: Ala-Too International University, the Kyrgyzstan Economic University, Urgench State University in Uzbekistan and the Tajik State University of Finance and Economics.

During 3- 10 July the participants got great experiences on the high networking platform. They took part in various discussions about curriculum development, about partnership and collaborative relationship opportunities, MBA teaching sessions. They visited several tourism venues developed by local entrepreneurs like White Mills, Chester House Estate. They also participated in the Events Management Conference, Research session with members of UoN researchers. Within the program the delegation from Central Asia also visited Oxford and Cambridge University.

Impacts of the Erasmus + Staff Mobility program to AIU:

1. Management Department already implemented several programs about tourism into their curriculum, like event management, hospitality management. In future they are planning to include more elective courses about tourism.
2. International Relations Office has signed a Bilateral Agreement and initiated to start Dual Degree Programs with UoN. Nowadays Dual Degree Agreement is under process.
3. Management Department and International Relations Office is planning to arrange a seminar for local entrepreneurs sharing their experience taken from UoN, how to create touristic places, save cultural places and promote tourism on national level, based on best the examples of Northampton local entrepreneurs.  
4. Talant Asanov shared his experience on case studies with his colleagues from Management Department and they are using the methods in their classes. 

Special thanks to Sandy MacDonald, Gill Gourley, Marcella Daye, Debbie Christopher, Matthew Bates for organizing such an interesting and useful mobility program. 

Photo report