Prof. Dr. Eliza Stefanova participated in the conference "Deep Dialogues – Transnational Education: Exploring Globalization Strategies" held in Cardiff, Wales

Between 25 and 27 June 2025, the conference "Deep Dialogues – Transnational Education: Exploring Globalisation Strategies" was held in Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The event was organised by the British Council and hosted by Universities UK International, Universities Wales, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Swansea University, and Cardiff University. Participants included representatives from 22 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America.
The forum featured discussions on key issues affecting higher education worldwide. Participants included government representatives, higher education professionals, practitioners, and regulatory bodies from around the globe. The presentations and discussions focused on internationalisation and transnational education, bringing together international regulatory authorities, higher education institutions, and government officials. The opportunities and challenges related to the internationalisation of higher education were thoroughly explored.

A series of key sessions and discussion panels were held, namely:

• International Higher Education in a changing world: comparative approaches to internationalisation strategies;
• Sharing strategies: roads to sustainable, scalable and equitable transnational education;
• The TNE Global Framework and its potential in informing TNE Strategies;
• TNE 3.0: How can UK TNE positively impact on the economic, social and sustainable development goals of host countries?
• Delivering high-quality, agile TNE partnerships in a changing world;
• TNE as a part of holistic university internationalisation strategies;
• Building better global awareness and engagement through partnership working in HE;
• The importance of belonging: learner experiences in TNE;
• A best practice approach to enhancing TNE student voice, engagement and belonging.

At the invitation and with the support of the British Council, Prof. Dr. Eliza Stefanova, Chairperson of the NEAA, participated as a panelist in the session "Sharing Strategies: Pathways to Sustainable, Scalable and Equitable Transnational Education." She also took part in the discussion on the most common challenges faced across countries, with particular emphasis placed on the importance of accreditation as a key factor in building trust in transnational education.

During the conference, Prof. Stefanova established contacts with colleagues from accreditation agencies in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Tunisia, and Romania, with whom she exchanged information on the approaches applied in those countries to the accreditation of transnational education. Numerous discussions were also held with participants from Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Spain, and other countries regarding opportunities for joint transnational education initiatives with Bulgarian universities.

During the visit to the United Kingdom, the signing of cooperation agreements was initiated with organizations analogous to NEAA—namely, the Office for Students (United Kingdom) and ATEA (Tunisia).

Prior to the start of the forum, on 24 June 2025, Prof. Stefanova held two additional planned meetings — with representatives of the Office for Students (United Kingdom) and with Dr. Janet Ilieva, Executive Director and Founder of Education Insight. The experience shared during these meetings regarding the use of data for assessing the quality of higher education serves as a foundation for future cooperation and the further development of accreditation methodology in Bulgaria. At the invitation of NEAA, a representative of the Office for Students and Dr. Janet Ilieva will be able to participate in the event organised by NEAA in Burgas in September 2025. They are expected to present good practices and concrete examples that may inform potential improvements to the methods currently applied in Bulgaria for the collection, processing, and analysis of data for the purpose of quality assessment in higher education.