A series of high-level visits to Tampere, Helsinki, and Jyväskylä were opportunities to demonstrate the project’s impact and its commitment to building sustainable educational futures. One of the key moments of this phase was the participation of a high-level Rwandan delegation in the Global Education Partnership Forum in Helsinki. The delegation engaged in leadership dialogues, explored digital transformation in teacher education, and contributed to discussions on vocational development in African contexts. A joint presentation by JAMK University of Applied Sciences and the College of Education on democratizing digitalisation in Rwandan classrooms drew particular interest, filling the room and sparking numerous comments and a lively discussion among participants, positioning the HEP-TED partnership as a model of North–South academic cooperation.
Another highlight of the forum was the keynote delivered by HEP-TED’s key expert, Dr. Elizabeth Eta, whose contribution brought depth to the discussion on equitable international partnerships. Drawing on her extensive research and practical experience across global academic collaborations, Eta challenged participants to rethink what partnership truly means in the landscape of global education.
In her keynote, Dr. Eta drew attention to what she called the “ghosts in partnerships”—the hidden forces that quietly shape collaboration but often go unspoken. These include unexamined assumptions about what has worked before, political and economic asymmetries between partners, the ´projection template´ that favour certain voices, and the tendency to rely on the same familiar actors.
Eta argued that recognising these ghosts is essential for building partnerships that are honest, equitable, and genuinely collaborative. This message resonated strongly with participants and aligned closely with the spirit of the HEP-TED project.
A second group of Rwandan representatives travelled to Jyväskylä and Helsinki, taking part in the SDG4 Seminar at the University of Jyväskylä. The seminar was inspiring especially for project’s leadership, as the delegation consists of professor Eugene Ndagaba, and professor Wenceslas Nzabalirwa, as well as senior lecturer Barthelemy Bizimana, and financial manager Emmy Kabano.
Reflecting on the seminar, Senior Lecturer Barthelemy Bizimana noted that the fundamental tasks of educational leadership lies in ensuring that every child has the right to education while strengthening pedagogical and leadership competence.
"Distributed leadership is more than delegation; it involves shared goals. And leading change is not about following technical instructions but about genuinely listening to people, creating inclusive discussions, anticipating challenges, and finding solutions together."
According to Bizimana, many seminar themes aligned closely with the aims of the HEP-TED project—particularly the emphasis on shared purpose between leaders and the communities they serve.
"Leadership in education thrives on shared purpose and collaboration. Achieving meaningful change requires collaboration, valuing diversity, and recognizing that everyone brings unique expertise to the table."
The seminar highlighted the need for transformative and ethical leadership—leadership that extends from classrooms to ministries and engages communities in the pursuit of equitable, high-quality education.
One focus area of the HEP-TED project is the research dimension of teacher education. Besides participating education forums, delegations took part in thesis seminars, workshops on co-supervision, financial management training and Erasmus+ development sessions at the University of Helsinki. They also visited the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (FINEEC) which offered insights into national evaluation frameworks.
In Tampere and Jyväskylä, the delegations explored complementary approaches to teacher education at Tamk and Jamk. Jamk presented its multimodal study model, digital learning developments and extensive RDI work, while Tamk highlighted its strong working-life co-operation and applied research approach that links teacher education closely with professional communities and real-world problem-solving. Together, the visits showed how Finnish institutions integrate pedagogy, research and collaboration with society to strengthen teacher development.
Overall, these visits deepened cross-institutional collaboration and created a clear path for next steps, including staff and student mobility, future digital-training activities and new joint initiatives within the HEP-TED partnership.