Successful Completion of EU Project RE-DIRECTION

The European Union funded the project under the Erasmus+ programme's Capacity Building in Higher Education strand from November 2023 to October 2026, providing approximately €720,000 in funding.
Since its founding, Karlshochschule has positioned itself as an internationally connected and socially engaged university of applied sciences. Through RE-DIRECTION, it has demonstrated that even a small, non-profit university can secure and successfully lead a major European collaborative project. The consortium brought together 16 partners from Ukraine, Georgia, Germany and Greece, including Ukraine's Ministry of Education and Science as a full partner and Georgia's Ministry of Education, Science and Youth as an associated partner.

Higher Education in Times of War and Crisis
The project aimed to integrate digital, sustainability-related and inclusive competencies into existing degree programmes and to establish resilient distance and blended learning approaches for universities operating in regions affected by war and crisis.
Together, the partners revised 13 curricula and developed nine new courses, available as freely accessible teaching and learning materials (Open Educational Resources) in English, Ukrainian and Georgian. The courses are also accessible via smartphones and designed to function with unstable internet connections.
A key focus of the project was collaboration with policymakers. Working closely with the Ukrainian and Georgian Ministries of Education, the consortium developed 29 recommendations for inclusive and sustainable distance and blended learning. These ranged from emergency contingency plans for maintaining teaching activities to the responsible use of artificial intelligence. In mid-October, the recommendations were validated together with representatives from the ministries and participating universities.
The project also placed particular emphasis on supporting its Georgian university partners, which have been directly affected by the reform initiatives of the authoritarian government in Tbilisi. For this reason, the consortium actively sought dialogue with the Georgian Ministry of Education. Representatives of the ministry participated in all four project meetings.