Today was the big day: Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences organised its first university wide Model United Nations. Students from many different departments gathered at the Kralingse Zoom location to play their roles as delegates and world leaders at a simulated United Nations session. In the morning a warming up took place under the skilful leadership of Edo Brunner, actor/director at BNN. In this interactive session a variety of issues were put to the vote, all linked to the general themes of sustainability and climate change. Are you willing to do your bit? e.g. eat vegetarian food three times a week? or sacrifice your short breaks by plane in order to put a stop to global warming? Even though the big auditorium was quite full there were lively discussions and many took the opportunity to speak out on issues that were close to their hearts. It was obvious that the training sessions in debating were gradually beginning to pay off. Here some pictures of the interactive session in the morning.
Today was the first real preparation meeting of the four staff members that will represent ISO / CMV at the first project meeting in Vilnius. Just a few more weeks to go before they'll meet EU partners from Bulgaria, Turkey, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania. Although there have been lots of short discussions and exchanges in the corridor, in between meetings and classes, this was the first time that we actually sat down to talk extensively about our input at the kick off meeting in Lithuania. It is never easy to decide on the appropriate amount of information about one's organisation, one's perspectives on education and the way education (in this case ethics)is provided at one's own institute within only 10 to 15 minutes. There is always the risk of an overload of information. Educational systems differ from country to country and so do teaching methods, as well as values and norms in general. The partnership in this new Grundtvig project not only covers 7 different countries, but it also represents a variety of organisations dealing with adult education. This will definitely mean a lot of new impressions and ideas to absorb in a short time. As this is a learning partnership this is also what we are aiming at, learning from each other and moving forward together to produce a number of interesting results in the field of teaching ethical competences within Europe. It will be exciting to find out what the common European ground will be. These are the four delegates from Rotterdam: Hans Donders, Harry Vrins, Danitsja Polak and Anja Stofberg.
Building an international dimension into your graduation paper has been a requirement for the 3rd consecutive year now for all CMV students. Prior experience showed that thinking internationally does not come automatically to the majority of the students, even though there have been a number of outstanding exceptions. This year it was decided to draw attention to this requirement at a very early stage, namely by having a short presentation at the first conference for year 4 students under the theme of "The Plan". In 30 minutes students were given an overview of the ways in which they could introduce an international dimension in their papers. Our students are the future workforce and the future is international after all !
Not many people active in Dutch social work education are aware of the fact that there is a unique institute housed in the Hague, providing policy oriented social science. I'm referring here to the international Institute for Social Studies (ISS). In fact, I even dare to state that it's probably better known abroad than anywhere in the Netherlands, with more than 10,000 alumni in more than 160 countries. Via an introduction from a colleague at our school of social work I managed to make an appointment with the welfare officer at ISS, Martin Blok. Before showing me around through the building, I was told about the multicultural community at ISS and the range of teaching programmes provided for postgraduate professionals, mostly from developing countries and countries in transition, but also from the EU and northern America. Although it recently (July 2009) became part of Erasmus University Rotterdam, it will remain based in the same building in the Hague with its own student residences on the campus next to the ISS building. What a wonderful learning environment this must be for the student body and academic staff; with students from all over the globe an excellent opportunity is created to stimulate and enhance learning from the inside knowledge and diverse experiences of each other, a unique and unequalled resource to the best of my knowledge. This preciously hidden gem deserves to be in sharper focus within our own institute.
Those were the terms that triggered me and set me off to Brussels for a 2-day conference organised by the EU. And what an inspiring 2 days it became! It was the first time I saw Ján Figel' speak, EU commissioner for education, culture, training and youth. I had read some of his speeches before, but seeing him "live" made me realise how this man really tried to make an impact on the audience by actually speaking to a huge gathering instead of just reading out a text prepared in advance, as did the second speaker Luc Van den Brande, President of the Committee of Regions and Odile Quentin, Director General EAC, in her closing speech. What also struck me was that he stressed the fact that it was all about "making human life more human", his captivating speech was a real message to the listeners and came across as authentic. I was quite happy about the choice I had made for the session on the crucial role of schools in innovation and fostering creativity. The key issue of new skills needed for new jobs was highlighted and the audience was presented with creative answers to the key question of what to teach in schools to prepare the young generation for these new jobs. The next day I had decided to go to the session of social innovation to hear a number of fascinating examples of societal entrepreneurship. Turning something seemingly bad into something good, was what all the speakers drove. Budapest Beyond Sightseeing for example is a case in point: it's a different type of city tour that takes the participants to one of the most neglected districts of Budapest where they get to experience the area’s hidden treasures through active participation, stories and encounters with locals, aiming to change the perception of the neighbourhood and its residents. The two people in charge of these social cultural walking tours both come from a social work background. The conference ended with the rapporteurs summarising the policy conclusions from each of the theme sessions, here's the link to the report. And here are some of the pictures I took to get a flavour of the whole event.
