The theme of the three-day event was From top down to bottom up - How to engage the whole university in Circle U. Around 50 participants from all the partner universities spent three days in Oslo, in a varied programme, consisting of a mixture of talks, workshops, creative corners and a Circle U. Café.
All levels, every partner
Guri Vestad, one of the organizers from the Department of Education Services at the University of Oslo, said: “The goal of the staff training week was to bring together academic and administrative staff from all levels, with an interest in co-creating educational activities within the alliance.”
She says that the participants were a variety of staff from all the partner universities, of whom approximately 25% were academics, from PhDs to professors, the rest were administrative staff. There were people both from departmental and faculty level, and from central administrations.
Judging from the feedback from Nicola and Hannah, they reached that goal.
Nicola Castellano is an Associate Professor of Management Accounting and coordinator for international relations, Department of Economics and Management, University of Pisa.
Expectations met
We asked him what his expectations were for the Staff Week:
“My expectation was to have the possibility to get in contact with my colleagues in other universities of the Alliance in order to start new opportunities for collaboration. Events like this is a way to get in contact,” he said.
Hannah Marshall, a student experience officer in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at King's College London, said: “I was hoping that there would be lots of opportunities to share ideas and good practice and then also to apply those to the way we like to work with students. I also wanted to look at opportunities for doing co-creation, and of course to meet colleagues from the different partner institutions.”
Both took part in the case assignments. Nicola’s group worked on creating a BIP – blended intensive programme – between two universities:
“I worked together with a colleague from Oslo, Paris and Belgrade. It was a nice experience to share thoughts about this kind of mobility. It was a surprise to see that the approach to cooperation is changing, compared to what was my initial expectation."
Nicola emphasized one development in particular:
"I realized that short mobility initiatives are becoming more and more common, and this can be a new possibility to collaborate within the Circle U. Alliance."
The Olympics as a starting point
Hannah’s group used the Paris 2024 Olympics as a starting point for developing a course for students.
“Working with colleagues from Oslo, Berlin, Louvain and Aarhus, we took the idea of contribution of the Olympics to European identity, a very broad topic, to allow for an interdisciplinary approach, with manageable contributions from multiple institutions,” she said. “Our idea was for a blended intensive program with short mobility at the start and at the finish, taking on board the initiatives we learnt about here at Circle U. which highlighted the need for flexible mobility, social contact and opportunities for students to work in tandems,” she added.
Her group also discussed how they could integrate early career researchers, for example by including a call for lecture papers on varying topics around the Olympics.
“To offer experience of internationalisation activities early in their career and allow for mentoring opportunities,” she said.
Both Nicola and Hannah were inspired by the staff week, and they shared the same thoughts around what their key takeaways from the staff week would be.
Bottom-up working groups
“For me it is that we can combine research and education by developing new initiatives, short initiatives, summer courses or micro-credential in collaboration with colleagues from other universities. I think that Circle U. must move a step forward to involve people at the faculty or department levels, and I hope this will happen,” Nicola concluded.
Hannah shared Nicola's perspectives on mobility opportunities:
“I think my key takeaway, on an institutional level, is the range of ways you can put together a more flexible portfolio of mobility offers. I've learned a lot about that this week."
"From an alliance perspective, I think it would be the need to build bottom-up working groups with administrative colleagues from across the partner universities, both to develop a sense of community and to allow ownership of projects and a sense of agency,” she said.
Start planning early
“My advice for future staff training weeks is to establish a good project team and start the planning early. I also think it was a good idea to ask the participants to send us a few words about their experience with Circle U. work and expectations for the staff training week in advance, and to have preparatory meetings with the presenters," said Guri Vestad.
"We received positive remarks from several participants, and we have sent them all an evaluation form with the hope of getting constructive feedback.“
Next up is the Staff Training Days at the University of Vienna.
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