For fourteen years now, the Education Exchange Support Foundation has been awarding the institutions implementing Erasmus+ projects and the participants and partners of other projects, and for the second year in a row, it has also awarded the best quality projects of the Sports Support Foundation. The Quality Awards event on 30 September rewarded the most sustainable and environmentally friendly projects and those that most strongly promote inclusion and digitisation, which are key priorities for the new phase of Erasmus+.

We are happy and proud that Kaunas University of Applied Sciences (KUAS) was named four times during the event and its representatives were on the podium.

The project “Integrated sport: from theory to competitive challenges”, implemented by the Department of Tourism and Leisure Management was highly appreciated and nominated as one of the highest quality and most inclusive sport projects in 2021.

The project was implemented by a team of lecturers and students from the Department of Tourism and Leisure Management: project leader Dr. Andrius Brusokas, project administrator Lect. Prof. Jūratė Martinonytė and students of the Sports Management study programme.

In the category of the most sustainable and nature-friendly projects, KUAS was nominated for the quality implementation of the Nordplus project “Heeling Greenery – 2020” (in Lithuanian: “Gydanti žaluma”, project leader Povilas Beseckas, International Coordinator of the Faculty of Medicine). This is the second year in a row that this project has been awarded. In the project, which aims to use green spaces for therapeutic purposes, students, with the help of lecturers, designed therapeutic natural spaces tailored to the specific needs of a certain client group.  Students and lecturers from Social Work and Agribusiness Technology study programmes, as well as foreign partners from Finland and Estonia participated in the interdisciplinary project.

KUAS and its Erasmus+ Institutional Coordinator Jolanta Valiaugienė were awarded a certificate of appreciation from the Director of the Education Exchange Support Foundation for their important contribution to the implementation of Erasmus+ projects in the higher education sector during the difficult period of the global pandemic. Jolanta, as the Chair of the International Affairs Committee of the Conference of Directors of Lithuanian Universities of Applied Sciences, was also presented with another certificate of appreciation for the significant contribution, support and sustainable cooperation in the implementation of the State Scholarships and Erasmus+ projects in higher education.