For the second year in a row, UCLouvain hosted the three-day final event of the Circle U. Change-Makers Programme in December 2023, confirming the success of this initiative among students, universities and local companies. MA and doctoral students from various disciplines and universities in Europe get to work together with their coaches to discuss and come up with solutions to concrete societal sustainability challenges.
Breaking Silos and Sowing the Ground for Future Partnerships
What makes the Circle U. Change-Makers Programme so successful and what does it take to organise it? We delved in the nuts and bolts of this initiative together with Amélie Jacquemin, a Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Louvain School of Management and the leader of the Circle U. Change-Makers Programme.
“Those three-days at UCLouvain really took us out of the traditional disciplinary and local silos of our universities”, says Amélie.
This year, 43 students, coached by nine professors/coaches from the nine constituent universities of Circle U., worked together for several weeks in international, multi-disciplinary teams on entrepreneurial projects with a societal impact. Some of the preparatory course sessions included videos with contributions from experts, companies and student entrepreneurs from the participating universities. They then gathered at UCLouvain for the final part of the activity to pitch their innovative, sustainable ideas in front of a jury. While in Louvain-la-Neuve, students spent several hours with the CEO of a Belgian company, visiting the company’s facilities and finding out more about its sustainability issues directly from the people running it. What's more, Martin Néra, CEO of the Belgian company Mind & Market (mindandmarket.com), was invited to coach the students ahead of their pitch. A great way for planting the seeds of future collaboration with local companies as well as for business leaders to find out about what the Alliances of European Universities are doing in terms of pedagogic innovation and service to society, and how they, too, can benefit from these initiatives.
What is going to happen to the project ideas developed by the students in the course of the programme? Amélie shares that the organisers are trying to find a way to help develop further the most promising and truly sustainable projects, especially those that can be implemented more easily and within a relatively short time-frame. One option may be via the Circle U. InCU.bator platform, which is being created under the leadership of the universities of Aarhus and Pisa to provide the leaders of these projects with expertise, advice, infrastructure and, if possible, financial support.
The Making of the Change-Makers Programme
With students and coaches from universities located in different countries, juggling the schedules, constraints and needs of each of the nine participating institutions is surely no easy task.
“As the students taking part have different degrees of prior knowledge and expertise, finding the right balance when it comes to content and topics to be covered can be a little tricky – Amélie explains – “Also, the teaching team is very large, with a total of 10 coaches and professors for 10 student groups. This requires a great deal of effort in terms of coordinating and synthesising everyone’s contribution. On the other side, this brings a wealth of complementary expertise and points of view, which is tremendously enriching for all those involved.”
When asked what piece of advice she would give to other higher education institutions wishing to carry out this initiative, Amélie says: “Create the activity from the outset in the form of a Blended Intensive Programme (BIP), which allows you to create an official course code, recognised credits and receive Erasmus+ financial support. Also, have a single person coordinate and lead the activity, because it's very difficult to make effective progress when you're in a team of several people.”
A Sneak Peek into the 2024 Edition
Good news: there is going to be a third edition in 2024 – online courses will begin at the beginning of October, with the final face-to-face event taking take place in Louvain in mid-December. The final event might be extended from 3 days to 5 days, to give students more time to work on projects, prototype solutions, collaborate with corporate partners, and offer additional workshops.
And there’s more! Amélie shares an exciting novelty: the organisers are considering offering alumni from the first two cohorts the opportunity to follow a new module called “Training the Trainers” and in turn become the next coaches of the course: “It would be a great way for them to close the learning loop. Some students have already expressed interest in participating. Their enthusiasm warms our hearts!”
The Circle U. Change-Makers Programme has been possible thanks to the hard work and enthusiasm of a very dedicated team of professors and experts from Circle U. universities who supported Amélie Jacquemin in this endeavour: Viktória Nagy (Université Paris Cité), Nicolas Lomenie (Université Paris Cité), Vesna Damnjanović (University of Belgrade), Morten Foss (Aarhus University), Markus M. Bugge (University of Oslo), Caspar Price Hafslund (University of Oslo), Romas Malevicius (King’s College London), Duško Ilić (King’s College London), Ruth Ebenbauer (Aarhus University) and Annapia Ferrara (University of Pisa).
Take a look at two videos made by students who took part in the 2023 Circle U. Change-Makers Programme below.