Higher education is facing challenges today which have made EU Member States particularly interested in attracting more third-country students to their higher education institutions (HEIs). The closing conference of the project entitled "International Promotion of Higher Education - Experiences and Challenges" was held on 23-24 March 2009 in Budapest.

Three similar-sized East-Central European (ECE) countries - the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia - and two well established higher education promotion agencies - CampusFrance (France) and DAAD (Germany) - have expressed their wish to cooperate in the internationalisation of tertiary education. Although the major universities of these ECE countries have some 25 years' experience with third-country students, their efforts to internationalise higher education at the national level are at different stages of institutionalisation, which they would like to enhance and develop. Working with the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, the national agencies of France and Germany can benefit from fresh perspectives and feedback on their work. The exchange of experiences, best practices and information in the advancement of higher education is essential for fostering better knowledge and understanding between partners regarding their higher education systems.

This idea has coincided with a European Commission strategy aimed at enhancing the attractiveness of European higher education outside Europe. Hence, the five partners have developed the cooperation project: ‘Building capacities of East-Central Europe national agencies to promote higher education outside the EU'. Funded within the framework of the Erasmus Mundus Action 4 programme, it has the following aims:

• to enhance marketing skills;
• to improve the management of relations with other actors involved in promotional activities;
• to exchange quality-oriented strategies for third-country student recruitment, focusing particularly on the Asia region.