From March 15 to 18, 2005, "E.H.U. International" holds a conference in Druskininkai, Lithuania, on "Experience and Perspectives of Development of Educational Programs in Belarus.” During these days, 57 colleagues discussed the status and limits of opportunities for "E.H.U. International," the state of the existing process of distance learning, improvement of communication mechanisms with students and among themselves. Technical support for programs, defense of final works in Belarus and beyond its borders and other, no less important issues.
University staff at the conference in Druskeninkai. 15-18.03.2005
With dedicated colleagues scattered in different corners of Europe tirelessly working on creating new descriptions and collecting document packages for the registration of new programs in Lithuania. The intensity of communication sometimes reached such a level that during our stay in Berlin we had to share a single "migrating" laptop among several people. Leaving it among the bedding in the rooms of the student dormitory, where colleagues-instructors spent the night. So that the "owls" could be using it in the first half of the night and the "larks" from the early morning. "Polishing" on it the drafted program descriptions and sending them in parts for translation into Lithuanian.
Thanks to the proactive and very humanitarian position of the former employees of the closed center for German studies at EHU, P. Liezigang and F. Knodler, several dozen students from the design, museology, and tourism departments, as well as "orphaned" students from the Faculty of Informatics, managed to study in Germany. Students were accepted at the Free University in Berlin, the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt on the Oder, and the Fachhochschule (University of Applied Sciences) in Saarbrücken.
Z. Pavilionis. Head of the Department of the EU Integration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2002-2006)
R. Juska. Advisor of the Foreign Policy Analysis and Planning Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2003-2006)
A. Juskienė. Executive Director of the E.H.U. International
The Lithuanian Government is joined by the European Commission, the Open Society Institute, the Council of Ministers of the Nordic countries, and the embassies of some European countries. Work begins on shaping the concept of the university in exile, forming working teams on both sides of the border managing the distance learning process during the current 2004-2005 academic year, preparing for the defense of diplomas for those graduates who remained in Belarus or found themselves beyond its borders.
To address organizational, logistical, and procedural aspects of university preparation and opening in exile, on October 28, 2004, the non-governmental public institution "E.H.U. International" is registered.
Of the possible relocation options (Poland, Russia, and Lithuania), the most persuasive offers came from the Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania, Algirdas Brazauskas.