Vilnius University of Applied Sciences, together with partners from six foreign higher education institutions, has extended its participation in the activities of the Parenting Consortium until 2027.The International Parenting Programme of the Consortium will henceforth be called the International Parent Centred Network (IPCN)

26-28 April 2022 The University of Malta hosted the International Parenting Programme’s Scientific Conference on “Parents First. Celebrating six years of parent-centred initiatives in higher education” and the Parenting Consortium meeting. In addition to the Faculties of Education and Healthcare of Vilnius University of Applied Sciences, the consortium includes the University of Malta (Malta), the University of Nottingham Trent (UK), Zuyd University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands), the University Colleges of Leuven-Limburg and HOWEST (Belgium), and Satakunta University of Applied Sciences (Finland).

During the International Parenting Programme, the representatives of the Parenting Consortium from the above 7 higher education institutions agreed to extend the Parenting Consortium for a further five years (until 2027). It was also decided that the International Parenting Programme of the Consortium should henceforth be known as the International Parent Centred Network (IPCN). The members of the Consortium agreed to the creation of the IPCN website to be hosted by the University of Malta. The website will include the activities of the Parenting Consortium, research, publications, distance learning lectures for students and webinars.

The programme also featured the launch of the first publication produced by the Parenting Consortium – a collection of research papers “Reimagining Parenthood in Diverse Contexts: A handbook of parent-centred approaches”, among the authors of which are some of the lecturers of Vilnius University of Applied Sciences.

The International Parenting Programme included a 3-day scientific-practical conference organised by the Faculty of Education, University of Malta. Representatives of universities and university colleges from various foreign countries attended and presented papers at the conference. Vilnius University of Applied Sciences was represented at the conference by Miglė Motiejūnė, Vaiva Chockevičiūtė, Aušra Simoniukštytė, lecturers from the Faculty of Pedagogy and Business Management. Miglė Motiejūnė from the Faculty of Pedagogy gave a well-received presentation on “Understanding experiences of parents’ reaction to LGBTQ+ Child’s Disclosure: A research review “, Vaiva Chockevičiūtė (Faculty of Business Management) and Aušra Simoniukštytė (Faculty of Pedagogy) presented their research paper “Inclusive education from the perspective of refugee and Roma parents: the case of Lithuania”.