CEEPUS

The Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Pécs has a long-standing tradition of organising the CEEPUS summer university, and the number of students attending is growing year by year. Besides the members of the network, students from outside the region also joined the ten-day programme focusing on 'Central Europeanness'. Associate Professor Dr. habil. Andrea Schmidt, the Hungarian coordinator of the network told us about the details of the programme.

European Challenges in the 21st Century - CEEPUS Summer University

The summer university studied the challenges, situation, role and development opportunities of the European Union. One of its major goals was to broaden students' views, to analyse the problems and opportunities related to the EU, and within that, our own region, the countries of the Visegrad Group from various perspectives, as well as to encourage the students to relate to their political and economic environment as responsible and active citizens.

The topic of the course was closely related to the central theme of cooperation, but by its very interdisciplinary nature, it also excellently complemented the main profile of the network. Thus, the students attending the programme received complex knowledge which went beyond their own specialist areas.

The professional lectures were always followed by interactive workshops. Due to the diversity of the students, we laid great emphasis on common thinking and exchanging views. These disputes were very popular among students. The most popular evening programme was the quiz night, which, for the first time this year, we held together with the students of another summer university organised at the same time.

The implementation of special courses of this type and structure definitely reinforces the goals of the network. It also happened that, due to the experiences gained at the summer university, we received groupmates and friends of former participants under Erasmus+ or CEEPUS mobility.

CEEPUS network: Europe from the Visegrad Perspective
Summer university title: European Challenges in the 21st Century - How to Move Forward?
Partner countries: The Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary, and outside the CEEPUS network, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Ukraine.

Last modified: 20-05-2020