Nice Network Meeting 2014 in Riga – a wonderful experience

House of Blackheads in Riga

In summer 2014 Pirkko Varis from Tampere University of Applied Sciences participated in the annual NICE network meeting, organized at the Faculty of Engineering Economics and Management, Riga Technical University. The organizational team consisted of Inga Lapina, Jolanta Jurēvica, Natalja Lāce and some other persons from RTU.  

Riga 2

 

Riga 3

The programme included plenary and workshop sessions on strategic partnerships within ERASMUS+, institutional accreditation and evaluation systems, student and staff mobility, blended learning, placements, internationalization of curricula and grade transfers. In addition, we did a lot of networking.

Pirkko, Thomas and Frantisek with other participants trying to recognize own bread

Some visits were made to old Riga,  Jūrmala,  the biggest seaside resort in the Baltic States and to a national park.  We also visited a bakery where we made our own bread. In the end of the visit we got our bread with us and after returning home the bread reminded us of the really nice stay in Riga.

Trip to Jūrmala

 

Trip to a national park

Thank you for organizing the fantastic meeting for all of us!  

Text : Pirkko Varis, TAMK

Photos:  Regina Parzer, IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, Austria

             

What is NICE network?

The New Initiatives and Challenges in Europe, NICE network is a network for representatives of more than 35 business schools, faculties and departments of business and economics.  They work together in order to develop curricula, joint projects, intensive courses, exchanges, internships and other cooperation. Pirkko Varis from Tampere University of Applied Sciences has taken part for many years in the NICE network and in the projects initiated by the members of the network. For example the IICEE European module was developed by some partners and now it is part of the curriculum in several universities throughout Europe. An intensive programme was developed based upon the module, too. In annual meetings of the network study programmes and methods are compared, new initiatives are discussed and proposals are made for cooperation and development of the network.  The Quality Charter of the NICE network and other information is available on the website of the network www.nicenetwork.eu

Media students created future media culture in Liepaja

Our delegation of ten students and two lecturers has returned from the second two week Media Culture 2020 workshop held in Liepaja, Latvia. The first workshop was in Tampere in April.

Media Culture 2020 is an Erasmus Intensive Programme. The project demonstrates what 21th century converged and interactive European Media Culture could be. MC2020 breaks classroom and campus walls by creating open virtual learning environments where students from different countries and fields can explore and learn together.

You can find all projects done by the students, presentations by the lecturers and daily reports from both Tampere and Liepaja workshops on the project blog http://mediaculture2020.blogspot.fi/

The 50 participants in Liepaja and 40 in Tampere were art, film, media and business students from Liepaja University, Utrecht School of Arts, University of Vic, University of Lincoln and TAMK.



The project was started on-line by preparing the projects in teams and participa-
ting in on-line lectures. On the big picture the Dutch team at the Ubiquitous
Media lecture given by Björn Stockleben (third small pic fron left) in one of the
five Google Hangout plenaries.




The main form of activity was team work, but ...




...there was also lectures and votes...




...and intensive debates.




Each team hosted their national cultural evening. Here team Latvia
members introduce traditional Latvian masks




Every day the teams presented the assignments and progress of their
projects to receive feedback




Freetime at last at the weekend. Exploring the old Russian fort in Karosta



On the second but last evening all seven teams presented their
projects to the international audience of the iWeek Festival in Liepaja
(Photo: Graham Cooper)




The last day was about finalising all the work and a long feedback plenary.
René Lansink (Utrech School of the Arts) assessing students projects
with Graham Cooper (Lincoln University)




Incredible how fast two weeks can pass. TAMK students saying
thanks and bye at Riga airport.