Staff Week at Comenius University: we hosted partners from eight European countries
In the week from 16 to 20 October, our university hosted an Erasmus+ Staff Week – a training event for administrative staff from partner European universities. We welcomed 19 colleagues from Poland, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Ukraine, Germany, Sweden and Lithuania.
The Bratislava Staff Week focused on internationalisation and foreign relations, and its participants were mainly staff dealing with international relations, Erasmus+ offices and those responsible for international cooperation. Colleagues from the Universities of Uppsala and Galway who are our partners in the ENLIGHT University Alliance also accepted the invitation.
The event was organised by the Erasmus+ Office of the International Relations Section of CU's Rectorate, who prepared an interesting agenda for the guests, presenting our university, its internationalisation plans, and examples of best practices. They also ran a workshop on how to overcome stereotypes while communicating with international students and teaching groups that include such students. They focused on the implementation of Erasmus+ principles in the current seven-year period. The informal part of the agenda included sight-seeing in and around Bratislava, including visits to the 'Červený Kameň' Castle, and the wine museum in Pezinok.
"The participants' evaluation of the event was largely positive. According to them, the most interesting events were the workshop and discussion on the implementation of the 'Blended Intensive Programs' (BIP), the presentation by colleagues from the ENLIGHT Office of the benefits that the university draws from its participation in the Alliance of European Universities, and the events of the International Erasmus+ Day, which has become a trusted tool for motivating students to participate in mobility at Comenius University," said Oliver Vavro from the Erasmus+ Office.
CU's International Relations Office has been toying with the idea of a CU Staff Week for some time. "I think we were finally motivated to organise it by participating in similar events at partner universities. We obtained the necessary know-how and became convinced that CU could dictate the pace of internationalisation due to its prestige and involvement in the ENLIGHT Alliance. These aspects also motivated our decision to organise Staff Week. Our university is a role model in mobility digitisation for Slovak, and other European universities. The response to this first Staff Week was positive and I can say, on behalf of our Erasmus+ Office, that we will continue to organise such events for colleagues from international departments at partner universities in the future," says Oliver Vavro.