We Climbed the Summit Together: Three Intensive Days, Four Continents, 14 Countries, 45 Participants
We are very pleased that our Short-Term Programme 'Summit' was a great success, with 45 participants from 14 countries. Most of them travelled to Lucerne and enjoyed in-person presentations, workshops and discussions, whereas a few colleagues joined us via livestream and enriched our conversations with their views (some from far afield - Canada, Singapore, South Africa and Uganda - despite the time differences!).
Our key-note speaker Gabriel Eckert from the US set the tone with a participant's perspective on short-term programmes (STPs). Thereafter we were privileged to listen to presentations, put our heads together in workshops, and air our views in a panel discussion.
A selection: Lenka Fehrenbach (University of Bern, Switzerland), Nina Richard and Sandra Bachmann (University of Zurich, Switzerland) and Christa Lang (University of Geneva, Switzerland) made us think about best practices for internationalization at home and the marketing of summer and winter schools. Christina Kampe (Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria) engaged us in a discussion about how to integrate local and international students in a short-term programme. We discussed the related issue of the challenges and pitfalls of a summer school in a small town with Daria Gunina (VSE Prague University of Economics and Business, Czech Republic). Wolfgang Irlinger and Ulrike Szigeti (Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Austria) introduced their Seven-Step STP Framework. Robert Buttery and Irene Diez (FHNW, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland) gave a persuasive talk about how to utilise social media in connection with STPs. Bruno Frischherz and Gordon Millar (Lucerne School of Business, Switzerland) gave an example of so-called COIL (collaborative online international learning) project across three continents. Jillaine Farrar and Sebastian Huber (Lucerne School of Business, Switzerland) reflected on the various levels of possilbe partnership involvement in offering an STP. And finally Linda Filáčková and Pavlína Šenk Kopecká (VSE Prague University of Economics and Business, Czech Republic) looked at the challenges of STPs commissioned by third parties.
At a panel discussion on financing STPs Olivier Tschopp, the Head of Movetia, the Swiss National Agency, gave a supra-institutional view of funding possibilities, including the possibility of Movetia finance for blended intensive programmes (BIPs) in the future.
Among the many open questions that remain: What is the exact definition of a short-term programme? What is the role of International Offices in making them happen and in sustaining them? How open should participation be? There is plenty more to talk about and our colleagues at VSE, this years's co-hosts, are planning a follow-up event in a year or two at which we can carry the conversation forward.
In the meantime we will keep you informed about the publication of contributions.
Thanks once again to all of you who made the Short-Term Programme 'Summit' 2022 happen!
