OFFICE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

Director: PhDr. Thomas Donaldson Sparling, B.A.

 

The year 2001 was the first year of existence of the Office for International Studies (OIS) as an independent department of the MU Rector's Office. Experience accumulated in the course of the first year led to the decision to make the Centre an independent accounting unit since 1 January 2002.

The main five areas of activities of the Office include:  International cooperation, foreign language programmes, presentations abroad, activities in international networks, and miscellaneous.

 

1. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Participation in international programmes

• SOCRATES Programme

Þ  ERASMUS

Academic year 2000/2001

MU participation in the ERASMUS programme increased significantly in the academic year 2000/2001. The number of MU students and teachers travelling abroad (244) increased by 73% in comparison with the year 1999/2000, and the number of teachers (49) increased by 48 %. The number of foreign students who came to Brno in the context of this programme increased only slightly: from 51 in 1999/2000 to 56. As a consequence of the insufficient offer of courses in foreign languages, we cannot probably expect any significant improvement in future. The only way that might improve the situation seems to be the implementation of the general approach of increased number of courses in foreign languages (especially in English).   

 

Academic year 2001/2002

We expect a smaller increase in the number of student participants in the ERASMUS programme this year in comparison to last year (around 20%), and the same trend is also expected in the following years. The same situation will be in the teacher group (the increase in 2001/2002 will be about 25%).

In addition to the student and teacher mobility programme, MU participated in another two ERASMUS projects, namely CDA1 and CDI 2 (development of international curricula), The Intensive Programme for the Environment and the Introduction of the European Credit System (ECTS).

Þ  COMENIUS

Three COMENIUS projects are currently being implemented at the FoE MU.

• LEONARDO

In the academic year 2000/2001, four LEONADRO projects were implemented in the areas of teaching aids for business terminology teaching (Centre for Further Education), special paedagogics (FoE), management in health care (FoM) and geography (FoS – scholarships for graduates).

• Jean Monnet

Two new projects were approved in the academic year 2000/2001 (at the FoA and the FoE).

• CEEPUS

In 2001, cooperation with foreign universities was implemented at MU in the context of 11 approved CEEPUS projects. This represents an increase of one project in comparison to the year 2000.

Cooperation with twinned universities

Traditional exchanges of teachers among twinned universities (Wroclaw, Szeged, Katowice, Poznan, Regensburg, Vienna, Greifswald, Bratislava) continued in 2001.

Bilateral agreements

In 2001, the Office for International Studies in cooperation with the faculties compiled a list of all bilateral agreements concluded by MU both on the university and  the faculty levels). The purpose of the activity was to find out which of the agreements properly fulfil their function, which will enable better orientation of the MU policies towards cooperation with foreign universities in future. In the course of the year, MU concluded new bilateral contracts with four universities, i.e. School of Economics in Krakow, Phillips University of Marburg, Arizona University and Kansai Gaidai University (Japan).

Other European scholarships

In the context of special agreements, students received scholarships to Dresden, Greifswald, Regensburg, Warsaw, Wroclaw and Utrecht.

 

Mobility projects on the level of faculties, departments and institutes

There are also a large number of mobility projects on the university level (semester, short-term, year, summer, etc.) enabling exchanges to dozens of students and teachers a year. These projects, involving cooperation within Eastern and Western Europe, and the U.S.A., are not registered centrally. Thanks to the new development programme of the Ministry of Education called "Student Mobility Support Programme", the Office for International Studies received funds for sending out 31 students included in the projects. In addition to European countries, the students travelled to, e.g., the U.S.A., Brazil, Turkey, India and Indonesia.

 

2. FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROGRAMMES

A very important task for the Office for International Studies is the preparation and coordination of courses for foreign students in foreign languages (especially in English). In 2001, two such programmes were implemented.

• CESP – Central European Studies Programme

This one-semester programme is offered each semester. The seminars of the programme are taught in English by teachers of three faculties (FoA, SoSS and FoEA) and cover economics, political studies, sociology and Czech culture. The participants in the programme include tuition-paying students from the U.S.A., and (for a reduced fee) students from the former socialist block. The courses are also attended by students coming to MU under the SOCRATES programme, for whom the CESP seminars represent nearly the only chance to attend lectures in a foreign language at MU. In 2001, 47 students attended CESP.

• TESOL TE

Participants in this one-semester programme focusing on the training of English teachers for foreigners can obtain "CELTA", the internationally acknowledged certificate for the teaching of English issued by the Cambridge University.  MU is one of the four continental universities holding accreditation for the programme. The programme is attended by both foreign and Czech students (the latter do not pay any tuition fees). The programme has so far been led by two experienced Polish teachers. Since summer semester 2002, the responsibility for the programme will pass on to two Czech teachers.

In addition to the two programmes, U also organizes a Czech-French educational programme in European public administration. According to the original plan, this two-semester programme leading to a diploma was to have been replaced with a two-year Master course in 2001. Because, however, the Czech Republic obviously lacks Bachelor programmes that would prepare potential applicants for this study, this unique programme was decided to continue for some time in the same form.

 

3. PRESENTATION ABROAD

One of the priorities of the Office for international Studies is to enhance the visibility of Masaryk University at major international educational trade exhibitions. In 2001, the Office took part in two such exhibitions, one in Philadelphia (NAFSA: Association of International Educators) and the other in Tampere (EAIE – European Association for International Education).

NAFSA – At the Philadelphia exhibition in 2001, the Office for International Studies coordinated the MU information stand with support from the Fullbright Commission, IIE (International Institute for Education), Central European University and 10 other universities of Central and Eastern Europe and the U.S.A.

EAIE – a representative of the OIS represented MU at the annual conference of EAIE in Tampere, Finland, where, among other activities, he attended lectures on internationalisation of universities and management of international offices. He also helped promote the Utrecht Network (and with it MU) by regular service at the information stand of the network.

 

4. ACTIVITIES IN INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS

• Utrecht Network

The annual meeting of member universities of Utrecht Network marked the beginning of cooperation with the Utrecht Network – American Midwest Universities with the aim to incorporate MU into the student mobility programme.

Thanks to the involvement of MU in the "MAUI" exchange between member universities of Utrecht Network and seven Australian universities, the first student from the Western Sydney University came to study at MU. Two Norwegian students of the Bergen University came under the agreement between UN universities as tuition-paying participants in the CESP Programme. Two more students came under the UN mobility programme.

• Compostela Group of Universities

MU continues to be represented in the Executive Committee of the CG. The annual General Assembly awarded the GC Prize to Mrs. Carla del Ponte of the Tribunal for Investigations of Crimes of the former Yugoslavia. The GC also formed several thematic networks, where MU has also been involved. The representative of the Office for International Studies coordinated one of the networks (administrative staff exchanges on the level of the CG).

The representative of the Office for International Studies took part in the seminar on European programmes organised by the Compostela Group in Brussels at the European Commission.

MU coordinates editing and publication activities of CG, including among others editing of proceedings of conference initiated by the awards of two prizes (on V. Havel, and J.S.Bach and the Present – both proceedings edited by the undersigned and published in Brno at the expense of CG).

• Báthory Collegium

This new network is the only network enabling exchanges and cooperation within this region where EU does not offer scholarships. The project of student exchanges between MU, Warsaw University and Vilnius University continued.

 

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Important tasks of the Office for International Studies in 2001 included the preparation for the visit of a group of consultants from the Salzburg Seminar, who came after two years to reassess different activities of MU, and to recommend future development trends of the University. Their positive report was published in the Univerzitní noviny (12/2001).

In the course of the year, there was a visible improvement in the services provided by the OIS to foreign students. The orientation programme carried out at the beginning of each semester was extended and was for the first time offered to all international students of MU. Four trips were organized for each semester (both within the Czech Republic and abroad). Several new publications were compiled for the foreign students. The new web site of the Office for International Studies launched in 2001 provides a wide range of information about MU in English for foreign students and teachers. The new web site in Czech is under preparation.