Unite! BIP Program concludes with resounding success at KTH Stockholm

Jan-Peter Ceglarek from TU Darmstadt 

I am building a growing remote-hybrid engineering course for Unite!, which currently includes 3 of the Unite! partners. This gave me first experience in coordinating within Unite! and build educational programs together with other Unite! partners and the workshop of building a JP was the next logical step.
And I was told, that Stockholm is beautiful – which is so true.

The workshop was super informative on what are the complex aspects in building and implementing a Joint Program (JP). Not only is it hard to align the content of the study, but also to bring the administrative side to sign all the papers – which is not a new problem, but still frightening.

The workshop was very inspirational, so that I would be really interested in working a JP and building a path towards an easier implementation of JPs within Unite!, if Unite! would fund me to work on this.

Sven Bossuyt - Aalto univerisity

The moment I first heard about the initial proposal for Unite!, I was eager to get involved because I saw exciting opportunities for collaborative teaching that recognizes the diverse heritage in science and technology that exists across Europe in different languages and cultures. Over the years that I have been involved in Unite! I developed a deeper appreciation of the challenges posed by collaborative teaching across different national contexts in higher education, but my conviction that this is important and my enthusiasm to strengthen multilingual and multicultural teaching have only grown. This BIP was a way to engage with the subject matter while also experiencing collaborative teaching as a learner in a diverse group, and broaden my knowledge of the complexities of joint programmes as well as my understanding of potential reasons for choosing joint programmes over looser forms of collaborative teaching.  

Participating in this BIP was a great learning experience, with a perfect mix of content that was new to me and discussions that revisited familiar ground from different perspectives. I made new connections and strengthened existing relationships. The knowledge, insights, and inspiration I gained in person here and through the preparations remotely will surely help me support the changes that have already been happening at Aalto.

Anna Maria Kamińska - Wroclaw University 

 Deciding to take a part in Unite! BIP week was one of those decisions that you make easily, and never regret it. The knowledge and practice taken during this week will allow to all of us to build successful joint programs among Unite! Partners. 

The Unite! BIP week was a great opportunity not only to understand joint programmes, but also to practice how to design and implement them. Also it was a unique chance to meet motivated and open-minded future JP partners among Unite! Universities. 

Duarte Costa - U Lisboa

I am interested in all aspects of teaching, including the design of a degree. l also was particularly interested in the idea of joint degrees, mainly for its interdisciplinary nature. I am a mathematician, but I think my area is at its best when it is in contact with other fields of knowledge, and in particular with real world problems, whether they are of a technical, scientific or philosophical nature. When I found out about this course, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to learn about how to deal with all the complexities involved in the creation of such a program. And who knows, maybe I’ll be able to help build a joint programme someday!

I think the program is very well put together. It gives the trainees lots of space to discuss the ins and outs of a joint programme, which I think is how we better learn how to actually do it. The time is short, but that somehow boosts the creativity quite a bit, and allows for very efficient brainstorming. I definitely will take a lot from this that I can add to my role at the university, and hopefully someday, from a more privileged position, I will be able to use my motivation and the knowledge I obtained here to help bring this joint programmes project further along.