The Border Focal Point Network is delighted to announce the speakers for the 10th edition of the ‘Beyond Borders: Breakfast Debate’ series. Border regions can be faced with different challenges, like education. European states have generally strong education systems, it is not always evident for citizens of border regions to have reliable access to quality education or the opportunity to benefit from excellent academic and research institutions located nearby.

Taking place on 6th October, 10:00-11:10 CET, the event promises to offer perspectives from policy-makers, education providers, and even students, on education in border regions.

The event will begin with opening remarks from Jean-Pierre Halkin, who is the Head of Unit of D.2 Interreg, Cross-Border Cooperation, Internal Borders at DG REGIO, European Commission. Unit D.2 manages more than 45 Interreg programmes covering all EU Internal Borders and the EU Borders with Andorra, Norway and Switzerland.

Next, Anne Thevenet, Deputy Director at the Euro-Institut will present the Massive Online Open Course on Interreg, a free online training programme she is managing.

We will then hear from the actors on the ground: first from Laura Mattausch, a student of the Master of Border Studies at Université Grande Région, who will present the opportunities and challenges of a cross-border university. Second, Enikő Darabos, Project Coordinator of BIG, an Interreg project working on cross-border education, will present the challenges in accessing education that the BIG project is addressing.

The debate will finish with a session bringing together all preceding speakers as well as Tine Delva, deputy Head of Unit in the higher education department of the Commission's Directorate-General for Education and Culture (DG EAC), European Commission. She will give DG EAC's vision on cross-border education and highlight how she is working with DG REGIO and stakeholders on the ground to strengthen access to and excellence in education.

Interested in joining the conversation? Register here.