Evaluation of the Asia Link Programme 2006

• Worked with ECORYS, Holland.

The company reviewed the progress made during the Program and assessed the extent to which the Program had achieved its objectives. Reviewed the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of supported actions as well as their relevance with respect to the Program's main objectives and made recommendations. Conducted interviews and reported on the findings.

The study concerned a sectorial and programme evaluation of the Asia-Link programme as this has been operated by the European Commission since 2002. The objective of the Asia-Link Programme was to foster regional and multilateral networking between higher education institutions in Europe, and those in developing countries in Asia.

The goal of the programme evaluation we were to conduct was:

• To assess the programme to date.
• To propose improvements and/or new options for the future.

Aside from RRD (Dr. Clemens Romijn), Ecorys had asked Terry Foulkes, and Dr. Ranjana Srivastava to join the evaluation effort. Both work as independent consultants, Mr Foulkes from the UK and Ms Srivastava from India.

The Evaluation Team has conducted three weeks of fieldwork in Asia in the course of which it visited eight Asian countries and almost two weeks of visits and discussions in eight European countries. In total over fifty universities were visited and we were able to study thirty projects in depth. Discussions were also held with Delegations in the countries visited, with EC offices, representatives of Members States, Ministries of national governments, other government agencies, NGOs and other relevant stakeholders.

Major results of the evaluation are as follows:

• The programme attained a significant impact in terms of improvements in the quality of Human Resources and labour market participation of students. Examples of areas where impact was achieved are: Sensitization of municipalities, local governments to relevant issues; strengthening the export sector and enhancing business contacts between Europe and Asia; New opportunities for academia-industry interaction.
• In terms of sustainability of the results, it appeared that the programmes had created strong international networks that ensure that results of the projects are sustained and expanded. These partnerships are reflected in various forms: Participation in seminars and conferences; Placement of PhD students in partner countries and joint supervision of thesis; Joint undertaking of training programmes and participation as guest faculty in partner institutions; Joint research programmes with existing partners and joint research programmes with various institutions in Europe.