Campus Europae Newsletter, March 2008
Table of contents
- Campus Europae seen through students eyes: An interview with Bernd Justin Jütte and Ekaterina Wittke
- Fast Facts
- Superior employability opportunities await Campus Europae students
- New CE-Bursaries available in Hamburg, Greifswald, Lodz, Kaunas and Riga
- More than 400 students gather for information session at the Saint-Petersburg State University
- Outcomes of the Humanities Subject Committee meeting
- Upcoming events
- Campus Europae Engineering Promotion Day, Nancy
- Student Council Plenary Meeting
- Law Subject Committee Meeting
- Luxembourg Higher Education Forum
- Engineering Subject Committee Meeting
- Natural Sciences Subject Committee Meeting
Campus Europae seen through students eyes: An interview with Bernd Justin Jütte and Ekaterina Wittke
Bernd Justin Jütte, student of Law at the University of Greifswald, was elected President of the Campus Europae Student Council in November 2007 - a task in which he is seconded by Ekaterina Wittke, student of English Literature and Educational Sciences at the University of Hamburg. Both have a long-standing engagement with Campus Europae, with Justin being the first President of the Student Council who has been a CE mover himself. We interviewed both shortly before the half of their mandate to learn about the role of the Council and take stock of their plans and objectives for 2008.
How would you describe the Campus Europae Student Council in a nutshell, namely in terms of aims and structure?
The Campus Europae Student Council (CE-SC) consists of two students from each University member to the EUF-CE network. Those students represent the 400000 students of the partaking universities and in their function advocate the students’ interests. Our main goals are to promote Campus Europae as an advanced European exchange program and to establish it as a brand in the European Higher education Area. The special characteristic of the Student Council in the network is that students do have an influence in developing this program.
The CE-SC was created in 2003. What have been its most relevant achievements and how does it see itself in relation with the other organs and stakeholders within CE?
Basically the Student Council, as the name already indicates, is a rather consultative organ. However the members get active as regards promotion and especially taking care of the CE movers at the respective universities. In it consultative function the Student Council is represented in every organ, e.g. via the student representatives in the Subject Committees and via the Presidency in the Administrative Board. Achievements wise the “Buddy network” comes to mind, that being a system where CE movers are welcomed and supported by students of the host university, and by promoting CE in Europe; our predecessors managed to organize a conference in student mobility in the European Parliament to make policy makers aware of the project and we are currently in the lucky position to build on that. Of course, as students, it is hard to maintain a solid standing among professors, however our representatives try to influence the decisions in favour of the students. Most importantly we are an independent organ and are accepted by all other CE stakeholders and decision makers.
What are the topical issues that you will be prioritizing in your 2008 agenda?
The main goal we have set at the beginning of our presidency is to consolidate the Student Council as a constructive organ and to integrate the new member universities such as Joensuu, Ankara and Gazi. With the students Council meeting in Trento coming up, we believe we are almost finished with this process; we expect every university to be represented, a situation that is indeed hard to achieve with 17 active universities. As a second internal goal we tackled the issue of communication within the Student Council and with all other CE organs; again we believe we are on a good way in establishing certain mechanisms and good practices for the future.
And what are your plans for after the Trento Student Council Meeting?
There are basically two aspects: First we want to help in establishing the CE degree, as it is vital for all CE movers to be recognized as distinguished students. We hope the CE degree can work as a sign of excellence and a brand in the European Higher Education Area. Secondly we will try to push the progress in the field of recognition of courses; both of us being involved in the work of Subject Committees we have a good insight into the matter and believe we can achieve a certain safeguarded degree of recognition for every CE mover within until the upcoming academic year 2008/09.
How would you describe Campus Europae as seen through student eyes and in the larger context of the Bologna Process and European exchange programmes?
CE is an exchange program with some specific feature no other European exchange program offers. By encouraging CE movers to learn two different languages, especially European minority languages, by helping students to integrate into the culture of their host country and by safeguarding a smooth integration of their CE studies in their domestic curriculum students can truly experience Europe at its core. Furthermore by establishing the LEP concept we hope to enable students of all social and financial background to take advantage of the opportunities of European higher education, with the positive side-effect of gaining experience in a different working environment. Basically CE is a tailor made exchange program for a new generation of eager and motivated European students.
What would your message to prospective students across the CE network be?
To put it rather populist: Move! We’d like to see CE movers numbers increase, creating a CE community throughout Europe. In taking part in CE exchange students get a picture of Europe in its variety, the opportunities to attend universities as Novi Sad and Saint Petersburg open up huge opportunities on the labour market. We would like to encourage students to become true European citizens, to take unusual paths and to experience Europe in Portugal, Serbia, Latvia, Russia and many places more.
Fast Facts
Superior employability opportunities await Campus Europae students
From the academic year 2008/2009 on students going to the Universities of Hamburg, Vienna, Aveiro, St Petersburg and Luxembourg with Campus Europae can also participate in the “Bologna meets Lisbon” programme.
Bologna Meets Lisbon is the logical consequence of the Bologna Process as the increase of mobility of students and the employability of young graduates have been its fundamental objectives. The Bologna Process must also be seen has a fundamental axis vis-à-vis the Lisbon Process which aims to make Europe the “most competitive and dynamic knowledge-driven economy by 2010”.
Bologna meets Lisbon will offer study-related working places in companies, administrations, hospitals and teaching institutions. Campus Europae calls these opportunities “Learning Employability Places” (LEP) to distinguish them from regular working periods which are regulated differently by local labour laws, and for this reason students will not receive a salary as such from the companies. An average LEP will be organized based on an 8 to 12 hours weekly workload and throughout the whole of the stay abroad.
LEPs are useful:
- for those who are looking for study-related working experiences and aiming at enriching their curriculum vitae;
- to meet people and make professional contacts outside the university circles;
- to enhance linguistic competences;
- to enhance employability after graduation.
Students participating will be offered an intensive language course of four to six weeks at the host university before the beginning of the academic year.
Interested students should contact their local CE Coordinator as soon as possible (deadline being the end of April) and prepare a small portfolio with their CV, areas of expertise and relevant past experiences that will be sent to their host destination in order to try to locate a suitable LEP. The confirmation of availability will be communicated until June.
New CE-Bursaries available in Hamburg, Greifswald, Lodz, Kaunas and Riga
Students going abroad with Campus Europae coming from the Universities of Hamburg, Greifswald, Lodz, Kaunas and Riga will be able to request further financial support – a possibility that might appeal particularly to those interested in going for a second year abroad, although application is open to all interested students.
Requisites for applying for the CE Bursary are participation in the Bologna meets Lisbon programme (see article above) and to contract a loan aimed at offsetting the difference of living costs for the length of exchange. Campus Europae has or is about to conclude agreements in the above mention cities in order to ensure favourable conditions with regards interest rates and repayment provisions.
Students benefiting from a CE Bursary should expect:
- CE to act as guarantor for up to 50% of the credit contract;
- automatic repayment of 30% of the credit contracted;
- up to further 20% repayment, depending on academic success: beyond a minimum of 40 ECTS each point earned equals a 1% refund in relation to the loan.
For further information please address to the local coordinator as listed bellow:
- University of Hamburg (email)
- University of Greifswald (email)
- University of Lodz (email)
- Technical University of Lodz (email)
- University of Latvia (email)
More than 400 students gather for information session at the Saint-Petersburg State University
From the 18th to the 23rd of February CE featured prominently at the Saint-Petersburg State University as the “Campus Europae International Days” took place. The programme comprised three events: on the 18 and 19th of February promotional activities were organized at all of 19 Faculties of the University by highly motivated students who received detailed information and were provided with a wealth of promotional materials.
These actions attracted considerable attention among the student body thus leading to an attendance of more than 400 in the “Days of Campus Europae” Student Conference held on the 21st of February. In attendance were also Vice-Rector and member of General Assembly Professor Ilya Dementiev, Campus Europae Coordinator Ekaterina Fein, members of Campus Europae Student Council Viktoria Elkina and Alexandra Pischugina, as well as the CE Secretary General Professor Christoph Ehmann, President of the CE Student Council Bernd Justin Jütte, CE Coordinator at the Vytautas Magnus University Darius Patinskas and member of the CE Student Council representing the University of Aveiro Joao Almeida. The Conference served to explain the aims and structure of Campus Europae and its study programmes, including detailed presentations of several of the Universities of the network. As in the local information sessions student’s feedback was overwhelming.
On the 22nd of February Campus Europae as an instrument for releasing the potential underlying the Bologna Process was presented at a Conference held for University professors, CE Subject Committees members, LEP-finders, representatives of Business Companies and social organizations, as well as representatives from the German, Turkish and Finish Consulates. The invited speakers were Stanislav Tkachenko, professor of School of International Relations with a report on “The Bologna Process and Russian Federation” and Mikhail Molitvin, Adviser to Vice-Rector, who gave a talk about “Academic mobility in St. Petersburg State University: problems and actions”. The discussion on the recognition of studies abroad was particularly participated and endorsed the CE approach: that meeting together in Subject Committees is the best way for learning about each others academic strengths and study plans, as well as to learn how to trust each other. The Conference proved a valuable introduction for those who were new to CE and it helped to set the tone for excellent cooperation that is to follow within the consortium.
Information session at Luxembourg University
The Luxembourg University stands out with regards student mobility, as all enrolled students are due to go abroad for at least one semester. And yet the information session for Teacher Training organized on the 20th of February met with considerable interest, with about 100 students attending the event.
The information session was firstly focused on the possibilities for exchange and application procedure, to which followed a second session with in-depth information about the University of Alcalá, Aveiro, Gazi University, University of Greifswald, Hamburg, Joensuu, Lodz, Vienna and Vytautas Magnus University – which compose the core of members of the CE network that are active in exchanging teacher training students.
Outcomes of the Humanities Subject Committee meeting
Humanities and Social Sciences Subject Committee convened in Aveiro on the 11th and 12th of January. The aim of this extraordinary meeting was to debate on the University of Greifswald proposal for a Master programme in European Identity, Governance and Multilingualism.
Various options regarding development of MA programmes and possibilities to obtain a support within EU framework were profoundly explored. On the basis of these discussions the Committee renamed an initial proposal for a “MA in European Identity and Multilingualism” and redefined modules to be offered for future Campus Europae students. By the middle of March institutions participating in this collaboration will clarify some points of the proposal and report on results to the Chair of the Subject Committee, so that further discussion could be continued at the next SC meeting in April, at the University of Alcalá.
Upcoming events
Campus Europae Engineering Promotion Day, Nancy
ESTINN, Nancy, 20th of March
Student Council Plenary Meeting
University of Trento, 4th of April
Law Subject Committee Meeting
Luxembourg University, 11th April
Luxembourg Higher Education Forum
Luxembourg, 14th and 15th April
Engineering Subject Committee Meeting
Joensuu University, 16th and 17th April
Natural Sciences Subject Committee Meeting
Joensuu University, 18th April
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