This year’s Membership Benefits Forum focused on one of the key tools of worldwide Club development – the FIA University programme.

Five years on from its inception at the 2011 Membership Benefits Forum in New Delhi, the programme is steadily growing, with three sessions having taken place this year. These targeted progress in strategy, leadership, and functional expertise.

FIA Secretary-General for Automobile Mobility and Tourism, Andrew McKellar, opened the session saying, “The FIA University aims to leverage the value of FIA membership by means of sharing, spreading and building knowledge. Over the past five years, the programme has welcomed 300 participants from more than 70 Clubs across 60 countries. This session will help us define the orientation of the FIA University for years to come.”

Brian Gibbons, FIA Deputy President for Mobility and Tourism, then gave a brief overview, “Today we will examine how the FIA University creates value for Clubs, determine the key relevant questions for the future and build on your expectations and demands to define our objectives.”

The main discussion was moderated by Professor Luis Vives, ESADE Business School, who firstly looked at what has been learned over the past five years, before introducing discussions involving members of the FIA University Emerging Leaders Programme (ELP) and Regional Programmes alumni.

Delegates then took part in a roundtable discussion to establish an orientation for the future, including: Governance; Content and Curriculum; Educational Partners; Geographies Covered, and the potential relationship between the FIA University and the FIA Centre of Excellence.

Thanks to the feedback from these discussions, a number of next steps were formulated. Creating a system of governance for the FIA University was considered a top priority, with a suggestion that a Board of Governors be put in place.

It was recommended that the matter should be considered at the next meeting of the World Council for Automobile Mobility and Tourism.

In closing, Brian Gibbons remarked: “If we’re going to deliver on a regional level, then we need to use the regional expertise we know is out there. We saw a great example of this in Singapore in Region II. There is undoubtedly an enhanced enthusiasm to do more around learning at the FIA.”