International Experience for All

Although high priority is attached to “internationalisation” in the higher education context, not all students have the possibility to spend an entire semester abroad – be it for lack of time, personal, or curricular reasons.

New Form of Mobility

In response to this, Erasmus+ has developed a new mobility concept: Blended Intensive Programmes.

“These short-term mobilities allow students to gain international experience even though they are not able to spend an entire semester abroad. At the same time, we promote international exchange as a large number of students and teaching staff from all over Europe come to visit us”, explains Daniela Lohner, Head of International Relations at the St. Pölten UAS.

BIPs in the New Academic Year

This winter semester, students of the St. Pölten UAS will pay visits to three partner institutions: Politécnico de Setúbal (Portugal), Oulu University of Sciences (Finland), and Windesheim University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands).

Further participation in BIPs is planned for the summer semester 2023 and a total of four BIPs will take place on site in St. Pölten.

In this way, the students can either gather experiences in an international context at one of the St. Pölten UAS’ many partner universities or gain insights into the various aspects of internationalisation directly in St. Pölten when the UAS hosts a programme.

Successful Start

In the past summer semester, the St. Pölten UAS organised two Blended Intensive Programmes in collaboration with other European higher education institutions and, in total, welcomed almost 70 students and lecturers from 14 partner institutions to St. Pölten. In addition, more than 40 students and lecturers of the St. Pölten UAS visited (partner) universities in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain.

“We at the St. Pölten UAS have made a conscious decision in favour of this new form of mobility. The BIPs are an ideal addition to our traditional study semesters and internships abroad”, says Lohner.

• The participants of the BIP “Social Work in a Digital World. Digital Work in a Social World”, which was embedded in the context of SocNet98, focused on the social implications of and transformations caused by digitalisation and globalisation. “Machines Can’t Dream” became this week’s slogan.
• In the course of the BIP “Interface | Metaverse - Experiment in Art, Design & Technology”, students and lecturers dealt with augmented reality interfaces and applications and tried to point out links between real and virtual spaces. One highlight of this BIP was the presentation of the project results at the Long Night of Research 2022.

About the Blended Intensive Programmes

The purpose of Blended Intensive Programmes is to promote the use of innovative learning and teaching methods and to actively use the possibilities of online collaboration at the same time. The cooperation in transnational and interdisciplinary teams allows the programmes to tackle current social challenges, for example in connection with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

The idea is that the contents of the BIPs offer added value in addition to existing teaching contents of the institutions involved.