The RSU Alumni Association participates in the international conference ICARe Alumni 2019

On 16 – 17 May the Riga Technical University (RTU) hosted ICARe Alumni 2019, an international conference gathering those representatives from several institutions of higher education who are in charge of promoting cooperation between a university and its alumni. Representatives from 40 institutions of higher education and other educational establishments representing 23 countries took part in the event.

The mission of ICARe (Inclusion Cooperation Accessibility Respect for Diversity Engagement) is to provide an accessible and inclusive learning community in order to promote cooperation between educational institutions and their alumni. The conference covered the following topics: communication and public relations, volunteering, professional career development, event organisation, attracting funding and other essential issues targeted at developing cooperation between institutions of higher education and their alumni.

Artūrs Kaļva, the Executive Director of the Alumni Association of Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU), and Elizabete Ribalkina, the Assistant to the Executive Director, represented RSU at the conference. Kaļva gave a report on how the way in which an event with a clearly defined target audience can foster cooperation between a university and its graduates titled ‘A Great Event – Increased Engagement’.  

Alumni associations are seen as quite a new phenomenon in the Baltic States, but something that Latvian universities cannot do without anymore. Graduation is not the end, it’s just the beginning. Every RSU student should have the feeling of belonging to their university and of being appreciated both during their studies as well as after graduation. 

‘Our graduates are people with vast experience in various disciplines who can encourage and motivate current students to make their diploma even more valuable. They can also greatly contribute to the development of RSU,’ says Kaļva.

ICARe Alumni gives an excellent opportunity to meet new people and contacts from all over the world to discuss various novelties and define topical issues for alumni in other parts of Europe, and to see what steps need to be taken in order to upgrade the Alumni Association.

The RSU Alumni Association expresses its gratitude to RTU and colleagues from RTU Alumni Association, as well as Porto Accounting and Business School and the Centre for Organisational and Social Studies of Polytechnic of Porto for organising the annual ICARe Alumni Conference for the first time.