 |
| IPL Staff Week participants at the School of Education |
As I was
sitting on the airplane on Saturday, I couldn’t help but wonder how it was only
a week since I last sat there – that time only to go take off to Lisbon. My Erasmus staff exchange week
went by flying. I spent it in Lisbon, Portugal where the International office
staff of Instituto Politécnico Lisboa
(IPL) hosted me and almost 40 other participants from all over Europe.
There
were not only International office staff attending, but a great variety of
university staff; a librarian from Spain, teachers from Austria and The
Netherlands, international coordinators from Sweden, Latvia, Poland and Greece and
many others. From Finland there were participants also from Metropolia University of Applied Sciences
and Oulu University of Applied Sciences
as well as Savonia University of Applied
Sciences.
It is
custom that every participant holds a brief presentation about their institute,
and that is how I got to know the other people taking part and how they are
connected to IPL. TAMK has an agreement with IPL within the field of media
studies, so I also visited the School of
Media and Communication in IPL.
Talking to my host, Carla Ruivo and other colleagues gave me an idea about European
students’ exchanges, the challenges and triumphs we share. I was able to see
the current trends among Portuguese students when applying for exchanges as it was
time of application round for IPL.
When it comes to teacher and staff exchanges,
I was proud to tell how active our staff members really are! We have also a
great number of international projects compared to many European institutions
of higher education.
On
Wednesday, I got a glimpse of what it is to be an exchange student in Lisbon,
when I tagged along the representatives from Metropolia UAS, Heidi and Anu, as they met up with their student who is currently doing his
exchange in Lisbon. It was interesting to hear a student’s voice about the
level of education and general living in Portugal.
On that day, Portuguese
people had a bank holiday in the honor of Revolução dos Cravos - Carnation Revolution. Red carnations were everywhere as people came out to
the streets to celebrate the non-violent revolution after long years of
dictatorship.
The most
interesting part of the week came always by evening, when shared a meal among
us colleagues. Through dinner, there was vivid conversation, laughter and
lively moments that gave more profound knowledge about their institutions and
field of work, and about their cultures. The dinners lasted for hours and it
was easy to pick up the conversation next day at IPL.
All in all,
Erasmus staff exchange week was an exciting adventure. I got new ideas for my
work but also the week broadened once again my cultural knowledge, gave me new
friends and the possibility to see the best parts of the beautiful city of Lisbon.
The International Week for Non-Teaching
staff in TAMK will be held in June, so it was perfect time for me to
benchmark some ideas regarding the on-going planning and arrangements for the
week. I’m convinced it will be splendid, I sure did enjoy my exchange.
Text & Photos: Noora Järventaus, International Coordinator
No comments:
Post a Comment