Interview with Esther and Samir
Why the name “HAPPY”?
Samir: As you know, Bhutan is famous for its development paradigm of Gross National Happiness. We wanted to align the name with the core objectives of our project, which is improving capacity for qualitative research methods. The wider societal impact should be across all kinds of sectors and contribute to the overall development of the country. This will be guided by improving conditions to reach the target of Gross National Happiness. So, the acronym HAPPY – standing for qualitative research in Higher education teaching APProaches for sustainabilitY and wellbeing in Bhutan – was engineered in a way that it captured the essence of the project as well as its broader impact.
The countries participating in the HAPPY project are Bhutan, the Netherlands and Slovenia. Not only are these countries geographically different, but there are also cultural differences. Can you share how the collaboration in such a diverse group is going so far?
Esther: The collaboration is going very well. Although, I think that the challenges in the HAPPY Project are more Covid-related, so far, than cultural-related. We developed this proposal before any of us had even heard of Covid. We made a nice project design, including well-thought activities. Little did we know that we would not be able to implement the activities as we had envisioned. So, to me this has been a greater challenge than any potential cultural challenges. It is worthwhile to mention here that this project builds upon earlier collaboration, in which cultural differences have never been hindering. In fact, as a project manager I would like to highlight the commonalities we have rather than the differences.
Samir: Yes, the Covid pandemic has definitely given us the challenge to adapt the work packages and align the project activities with the natural strengths of the countries and different institutions in an online setting. For example, in Bhutan, our natural strength is being a good host and having very good in-person interactions. Unfortunately, we have not been able to show this as much as we would have liked to our partners. But in terms of everyone’s commitment to doing the best they can despite the new way of online working, I think everyone has done an amazing job.
Both of you are the project managers of the HAPPY project. Can you tell how the partnership between VU Amsterdam and the Royal University of Bhutan was established?
Esther: Samir and I already met a couple of years ago when I was in Bhutan for another project. Samir then invited me to their campus, I still very vividly remember going to the RTC campus, which is a little bit outside of the capital. We had such a nice encounter, exchanging so many ideas and thoughts. Although at that time, we didn’t see any concrete opportunity to collaborate, we immediately recognized that there was mutual interest to do something together. Soon after, we got the opportunity for staff exchange through the Erasmus+ Mobility programme. Two VU Social Sciences faculty-members went to visit RTC and at VU Amsterdam we received Bhutanese staff members from RTC’s Faculty of Social Sciences. During these visits, a lot of ideas were exchanged and there was a clear need identified for Qualitative Research Methods in Social Sciences in Bhutan. From here, the ball kept rolling and here we are.
Samir: What I found very promising in terms of our collaboration potential was the fact that the development of a larger project idea came simultaneously with the staff visits. Usually, it takes some time getting to know your partner and understanding the needs. But in our case, it all happened naturally, which I believe is very special.
What was your personal motivation to make this project happen?
Samir: As part of my professional responsibilities I look after partnerships, particularly those that can help with institutional development efforts. One of our current partners, dr. Erik de Maaker from Leiden University, was part of a previous project. We got to interact through that project about Qualitative research and we identified some clear gaps. Personally, I think I have seen enough to confirm that good things can happen as a result of people talking to each other. The idea of multilateral collaboration with multiple countries and multiple institutions, which is the essence of Erasmus+ capacity building projects, is what appealed to me the most. Even within Bhutan, we often get too busy and don’t have the time to talk with the different institutions about the long-term strategic goals like this type of project allows us to do. So, getting this type of network of people talking together and learning from each other was my personal motivation.
Esther: Like Samir, I have a personal motivation and a professional motivation. Personally, I was waiting for a new challenge. I have been coordinating international capacity-building projects for years. But this EU modality which requires a lot of partners to work together, is quite a new challenge. And having this nice collaboration with Samir and his colleagues was also a motivation, because sometimes you invest a lot in building relationships and trust, and then sometimes it just ends, because there are no other collaboration opportunities anymore. Concerning my professional motivation, I believe that all universities in the world have three pillars: Research, Education and Social outreach. The third pillar, however, is often forgotten, while for VU Amsterdam this pillar is essential. We want to make sure that we put our knowledge and competencies to use for societal challenges anywhere in the world.
This project lasts until 2023. How do you envision higher education in Bhutan to be developed at the end of this project?
Samir: While our country has this extremely rich culture and traditions, the documentation, the leveraging of culture for broader goals in society, and the building of skills to recognise aspects of society and culture and use these in a variety of occupations, are aspects that have still been underdeveloped in Bhutan. I imagine, through our HAPPY Project, at least amongst the 4 campuses, that we would develop academic capacity for these aspects. The nice thing about building academic capacity is that these are institutions that are very long-lived, stable, and have a clear social outreach mandate. So, the knowledge we build will continue to benefit the society. We would like to see that the capacity built in the academic institutions will feed our students. The other part of this project is to elevate qualitative research methods and outputs amongst wider society and to create impact in the wider society. We hope to generate in the long run outputs that will benefit the society, for example through better policy-making or societal goals that contribute to Gross National Happiness, like environmental sustainability, equitable socio-economic development, good governance, and so on.
Working in diverse groups always brings interesting experiences. What do you think that the European Universities will take out of the HAPPY project?
Esther: I think a lot of cultural learning, especially for us Dutch people, being less blunt (*laughs*). What I really look forward to, and I think all academics involved in this project do, is strengthening this community of academics who will ask questions. By looking around and observing the challenges of Bhutanese society and shedding light on these challenges through research. I can really envision that this project will just be a steppingstone towards a longer-term collaboration among all the institutions who will become part of this community.
Any last words before we close this interview?
Only that we are very grateful to the EU for this opportunity to realise the HAPPY Project. So, a big thanks to Mrs. Alba and her colleagues.
