Skytte Institute has successfully participated in the blended intensive program with partners from Prague and Siena

Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies together with partners from the Prague University of Economics and Business (VŠE) and the University of Siena have successfully conducted a 5-week blended intensive program (BIP), entitled “Current European affairs: East and West cleavages”, which awards 3 ECTS to learners upon successful completion of the course.

The main aim of the course was to give students knowledge of the current European affairs through the prism of existing intra-EU cleavages between East and the West. During the first four weeks, students participated in online sessions in the MS Teams and Moodle environment, hosted by partners at VŠE, where they were introduced to such topics as EU asylum policies, and Schengen area/freedom of movement; Euroscepticism and illiberalism in the EU; as well as perceptions of the EU in the new global (dis)order. During this time, students also formed the groups to work on their final presentations and policy papers.

During the last week of the course, eighteen participants from Tartu and Siena meet in Prague with local students and instructors for the in-person session. Students participated in the panel discussions; group work and listened to the lectures delivered by academic staff from partnering universities.

According to Dr. Stefano Braghiroli, the academic coordinator of the BIP program from the side of the Skytte Institute, “the following course offers to students not only timely knowledge of key challenges for today’s EU, but also the concrete possibility to interact with fellows from diferent universities and member states and exchange perspectives and points of views about these very challenges. It was an enriching experience for everyone – from students to teaching staff and organizers.”

In the words of Anna Beitane, the administrative coordinator of the course, “we are pleased to see the outcome of the course, which resulted in a smooth organization of blended mobility for our learners. Although it has been a long process of coordinating the structure of the course as we were approached with the initial idea about this BIP from the Prague University of Economics and Business

in late February of 2022, we are very pleased with the way course has been arranged and implemented. We are very thankful for the assistance provided by our international office and Erasmus+ mobility coordinator at our institute for all the extra effort in ensuring the provision of the necessary documentation required for student exchange.”

More information about the course, could be found on the Study Information System of the University of Tartu here.

The course was organized as Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) supported by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.