Last week EUCU.NET joined the 21st conference of the Europaen Association for International Educators (EAIE). Chris Gary and Cyril Dworsky went to Madrid to present the network and various concepts of Children's Universities at a very international level.

The aim of being part of the EAIE exhibition was to present EUCU.NET as an active network of a broad variety of CU organizers and to promote the idea of Children’s Universities as an innovative approach of widening participation and raising awareness among more than 3.500 representatives from universities and international exchange coordinators.

In between of the mass of professionals in the field of higher education and over 100 stands with new programmes, products and publications in the field of inter­national education we have been quite an exotic species. We talked to many participants and many of them heard of the existence of Children's Universities for the first time. On the other side we met also interesting new projects of places we haven't known about until now.

EUCU.NET had the possiblitiy to share the exhibition booth with two of our partners. On the one hand the EAN (European Access Network) whose aim is to encourage wider access to higher education for those who are currently under-represented. And on the other side the Educational Opportunities Team of the University of Liverpool who encourages and supports people who traditionally would not have considered going to university. They presented the Professor Fluffy's Primary Programme, which attracted more people to our stand than we would have imagined.

The EAIE is the European Association for International Educators. The mission of the EAIE is to stimulate and facilitate the internationalisation of higher education, meet the professional needs of individuals active in the field and bring together fellow professionals worldwide in all aspects of international education. (Mission Statement, EAIE, 2007-2008)