Objectives

Objective 1: Needs Analysis
A Needs Analysis and Situation Assessment survey is drafted by the partner institutions and disseminated among all Lebanese partners in order to have a clearer idea of the current situation of Student Empowerment, Engagement and Representation (StEER) at the national-level and to identify the knowledge, needs and expectations of the academic communities (students, professors, employees and governance).
Objective 2: Shadowing and exchange of good practices
Three visits are organized by the universities of the consortium in the universities of the Programme countries. Two types of activities take place during these visits: shadowing sessions and meetings for the exchange of good practices. The shadowing visits aim at visiting the infrastructures in place at the concerned European universities and their functioning. The meetings for the exchange of good practices take place during the same visits, gathering all partners (including representatives of their student bodies) and local stakeholders. During these meetings, all partners introduce a practice (preferably successful) to the other members of the consortium.
objective 3: Capacity-Building activities
Based on the observations from the need analysis, the shadowing visits, and following the willingness of the Lebanese institutions to implement new or to improve existing StEER structures, curricula are developed and training are taking place, to build the capacities, not only of the trainers (staff and professors involved in the StEER teams) but also of the students who will develop these structures and bodies themselves.

On the one hand, the training of professors and staff took place over two weeks during two in-person workshops. The activities address topics such as the regulations of StEER on campuses, funding and budgeting, and all topics covered during the shadowing and good practices activities and that need specific trainings. On the other hand, capacity-building activities for students took place in Lebanon, France and online. They included, joint sessions for all students involved in StEER teams, then through different teaching and learning support, such as a course module taught by a guest lecturer, project-based learning and expert trainings. The curriculum and content of the capacity-building activities for students result in the development of training manuals, and of a StEER MOOC that ensures the proper dissemination of these trainings to students from other institutions, beyond the consortium.

objective 4: Development of the StEER Structures in the Lebanese institutions and at national-level

In this phase, the teams of students in charge of the StEER on each Lebanese campus and at national-level are constituted before the trainings. Once they have started the trainings and signed the pledges, they start developing the structures that best suit their needs and the requirements of their universities.
They organize meetings and work sessions in cooperation with the trained professors and staff in order to set all dimensions of these structures: priorities, levels of representation and involvement, scope of responsibilities, the designation/voting schemes, programs, calendar of activities, partnerships with stakeholders etc.
The Student Affairs Offices/Services whose staff was trained during the WP3 work on updating their missions and action plans. They are also mentored and supported by students from the EU partner institutions.
At the national-level, a national student representation structure will be established at the end of the project to address the needs and expectations of the majority of Lebanese students. Higher Education Institutions from all over Lebanon can join this structure.

objective 5: IMPLEMENTATION OF STEER STRUCTURES AND PILOT ACTIVITIES
Once they have reached the end of their Capacity Building activities and developed coherent action plans and schedules for the development of their StEER structures, the teams start implementing the planned activities and events. To do so, they need to ensure the good respect of all indicators set during the development phase (financial indicators, deadlines, participation rates, satisfaction, etc.), the good communication with the institutional and national governing bodies and potential stakeholders, and they have to commit to the values dictated in the pledges (gender equality, tolerance, diversity, fairness, transparency, etc.) Follow-up meetings take place after each activity in order to evaluate their impacts and the respect of all indicators, and improve, if needed, their work on future activities. Monitoring visits by representatives of the EU partner institutions and the Ministry also take place to ensure the good progress of this implementation and its impact on the different Lebanese campus-life and youth development.