Abstract:

Capacity building projects in higher education are transnational cooperation projects that aim to modernise, internationalise higher education and promote contacts between people, intercultural awareness and understanding. As a result of such projects, SMARTEX, a cooperation project between different higher education institutions from Asian and European countries, was launched with the aim of sharing knowledge and experience to modernise the curricula in the field of intelligent and technical textiles at universities in Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan. In order to achieve this, a preparatory phase has been carried out, involving a series of activities focused on the development of new courses and updating of existing ones in the indicated subjects, as well as the review and the joint analysis of the needs of each university, in terms of student competencies, specific curricular needs and in-company programmes and international exchange. This preliminary study made it possible to determine the courses and modules to be completed and/or developed for each university and to establish a planning for their achievement. Also, as related and complementary activities, methodological guides have been elaborated which include teaching and learning techniques and frameworks for the implementation of internship programmes and international student exchanges. The exchange of academic staff from European to Asian countries for seminars and internships of Asian students in European countries have been other activities carried out for the internationalisation of higher education and to improve the competitiveness of Asian university graduates in the field of technical and intelligent textiles.

Keywords:

Modernisation, curricula, smart textiles, technical textile, exchange.