Newsletter October 2015 – ALSR
“SUMMER IN SPACE” CONCEPT (ARTESIS PLANTIJN UNIVERSITY, ANTWERPEN, BELGIUM)
During ALSR mission to Antwerpen (25-31 May 2015) as guests of AP University college, Antwerpen, we were advise to pay special attention to one of the latest practices to promote collaboration of business and colleges – the “Summer in Space” concept.
The key elements of the concept are as follows:
- “Summer” – students’ holidays when they are free of academic duties for up to 8 weeks (2-3 of which may easily dedicated to a sort of businesslike vacation – not for leisure only;
- “Space” – a European network for business and language studies – a mechanism to bridge business and schools, students and companies, teachers and employers;
- Target – to set up a space or a frame for joint work for building a mutually beneficial network (particularly a Digit Business development project)
- Beneficiaries: students get new skills and knowledge in a respective domain of business (industry or service) apart from 30 ECTS after 3 weeks studies);
- Businessmen – get innovative solutions to their business plans from multicultural students community for expanding business to new areas represented by students of corresponding economies and markets;
- Teachers – get new experience in mastering the tools for training and education;
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS:
- Implementing a digital business development for a local company or an organization in multinational students group;
- Intensive course for students learning the concepts and practices of digital business by means of
- Classes taught by international lectures from the European partner institutions;
- 8 hours lecturing in a topic supporting students project work;
- 3 weeks schedule basic elements: team-building, company and case presentations, working in terms; e-marketing; reporting and presentations skills contest; entrepreneurial marketing; copywriting; business planning; meeting entrepreneurs for Q &A; organizational values; cultural differences; web-based business; presenting results to the company; evaluations and feedbacks of the presentations; rewarding and certification; summarizing and cultural events.
CHALLENGES AND RISKS:
- Funds/sponsorships for travel, accommodation, tuition costs;
- Motivated teachers/students/staff ready to sacrifice summer for space;
- English language fluency as initial prerequisite of a successful participation for both students and teachers;
- Access to international educational and business networks open for collaboration in a similar project for Russian higher educational institutions;
- Turbulent currency markets in Russia for long term planning;
- General economic and social uncertainty making students and teachers postpone costly events due to cost saving strategy under the present economic situation in Russia;
- Most of the students and teachers (even ready and willing to take a chance in a similar project) normally use the summer vacation for earning money for paying their university tuition charges;
- ECTS system has not yet been widely in use to be used as an advantage for joining the similar projects;
- New Sсhengen visa requirements for Russian nationals.
Evgeny Osetrov Evgeny.osetrov@atiso.ru
Andrei Kapterev kapterev@narod.ru
Maxim Kislitsyn maks.kislitsin@mail.ru
ALSR – Academy of Labor and Social Relations, Moscow, Russia
Moscow-Antwerpen-Moscow
30 August 2015
