From the Academic Coordination Centre of the Euroregion Neisse/Nysa/Nisa towards a Central European Campus

Prof. Thorsten Claus, the director of TU Dresden’s International Institute (IHI) Zittau and Prof. Aleš Kocourek, dean of the Economic Faculty of the Technical University of Liberec (EF TUL), talk about reality and vision of their cross-border cooperation

IHI Newsletter: Mr. Claus, you were elected as the new president of the Academic Coordination Centre of the Euroregion Nisa (ACC) right in the middle of a pandemic era, in which cross-border cooperation can only be done virtually. What are your plans in this function and what could be initiated so far under the circumstances initially described?

TC:  First of all, I’m very thankful for the trust, ACC members have placed in me. The ACC was founded in 1991 in order to coordinate research, teaching and knowledge transfer in the German-Polish-Czech border region. Meanwhile, almost all institutions of higher education in the region are members in it. Right from the beginning, this initiative was based on the enthusiasm of a handful persons, that were far ahead of their time, as EU’s enlargement towards Central Europe began only in 1997, and the Bologna-system, that made transnational studies so much easier, was introduced even two years later.

From an inner-German perspective, the Zittau region has a peripheral location, linked with many structural problems. That’s why I’m absolutely convinced, that a positive development of our region can only be accomplished in conjunction with our neighbours, by creating as many ties as possible with these neighbours in order to raise a common potential and by making the periphery a centre on its own. And that’s, how ACC comes into play: The ACC already is a well-functioning platform for cooperation between the universities of the region. A common scientific journal and regular conferences can be named here.

In addition to that, TU Dresden’s IHI Zittau and EF TUL launched a common double degree master programme on International Management last year. Its alumni will receive two diplomas: One of TUL and another, commonly issued by TU Dresden and the University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Görlitz. The first experiences of our initial intake are quite promising - in spite of the difficult conditions, when students were limited to a virtual get-together and couldn’t really get to know each other in person or commute between the two „campuses“. Especially encouraging is the vivid response, the new offer found among TUL students. I’m convinced, that this programme can serve as a role model for even more future cooperations, that in the end might merge into a kind of Central European Campus Neisse/Nysa/Nisa like already practiced for some decades by the German-French-Swiss European Campus Upper Rhine (EUCOR).

But, alas, up to now, this cooperation and vision still rests on the shoulders of too few enthusiasts and could be distinctly extended not only into many more common teaching models, but also in the fields of research and knowledge transfer. We need a cooperation network, that rests on more pillars and that is fed by the conviction of the academic players in our border region, that THIS is our common future: United we stand, together we fall!

First steps are already undertaken in that direction: We’ll have a closed-door meeting of ACC’s members in September in order to define next steps towards the further development of that network. But that can be done succesfully only „face to face“, as virtual meetings, we were reduced to during the past year, can only guarantee the stability of already running systems – that’s why I’m only just beginning to realise some of the plans of my three-year’s-term as ACC president.

IHI Newsletter: Mr. Kocourek, TU Liberec is a founding member of ACC. Which advantages do you see in this network and which expectations do you have in its further development?

AK: The mission of the Academic Coordination Centre of the Euroregion Nisa (ACC) is to promote and coordinate the European university education policy and philosophy mainly in the Euroregion Neisse. I consider this for a crucial goal, especially in the current world where fundamental rules and shared values of democracy and humanism have been eroded by populism, extremism, xenophobia, and even corruption. Universities are the traditional bearers of principal moral values and their irreplaceable key role is the cultivation of society. International cooperation between the universities brings many highly valuable advantages: It fosters the position of individual institutions. It provides inspiration and opportunities for easier sharing of the best practices. It widens the horizons of not only students, but also academicians and other staff. It creates new friendships and builds bridges between cultures and societies. The international cooperation is the DNA of the European integration and I am very proud we are one of the founding members of the ACC.

My expectations in the further development of the ACC are in two main areas: 1) international research and 2) student mobility:

• I would like to see more joint research projects, more joint research publications, and more international research teams. We have many interesting research topics we could work on together. It is our great opportunity and also a huge advantage!
• I would like to see more international students, not only from Germany, Poland, or Czech Republic, but from all around the world, working together in one classroom. It is our task to attract creative students who think globally and act responsibly and to offer them modern study programmes provided by excellent teachers from different countries. This is the core idea of the European Universities Initiative and I believe, the double / multiple / joint degree study programmes are a great tool for this.

IHI Newsletter: Both of you underline the importance of the double degree programme, that was just launched by IHI Zittau and EF TUL and there is even the headline of a „Central European Campus Neisse/Nisa“. Can you explain that vision a bit closer?

TC: We have to tear down the frontiers inside our heads! Only, if we succeed in transmitting our students the feeling of studying in an attractive, transnational Euroregion instead of studying in some German, Polish or Czech peripheries, we’ll have a chance in the global competition for the best heads.

IHI Newsletter: Mr. Kocourek, do you share this conviction? In other words: Which strategic meaning this programme has for EF TUL?

AK: Absolutely. The Euroregion Neisse/Nysa/Nisa is an attractive place to study, it features many excellent universities and the fact that two of these universities have opened together double degree study programme is a clear signal we are tearing down the frontiers as prof. Claus has mentioned.

International Management is an exclusive study programme at the Technical University of Dresden as well as at the Technical University of Liberec. The whole study is centred around the issues of management in international environment, but in fact the cross-border cooperation between the two universities itself is a project of international management. We are teaching the students managing their international businesses, but they are also experiencing some of the issues and difficulties of the international management in the interuniversity coordination of the study programme. Thus, learning by doing becomes another added value of this study programme.

IHI Newsletter: Still, this kind of transnational study programme keeps being a challenge, not only under the present, certainly very special conditions: Different legal systems have to be regarded, the semester schedules differ quite a lot, students face two different frameworks and concepts of teaching and of being examinated… Can you report on some of the first experiences of that?

TC: This is really like entering a virgin territory for everyone involved! It would be naive to believe, this kind of programme can be launched without difficulties – even, if you’re convinced, that you checked, discussed and cleared all eventualities in advance. Inside your own culture, you tend to take so many things for granted, that some of the future problems don’t even come to your mind as possible problems – and once they are there, it’s hard to recognise them as structural problems of different cultures and not to misinterprete them as some kind of „strange offense“ of the other side. Let me give you one example: Due to TUL’s regulations, student have a right so get the results of any exam within five days. Our regulations say: Results of written examinations SHOULD be communicated to students within four weeks – and there’s few opportunities for an examination office to put real pressure on that on a German professor! So the poor ladies of our office get in between „impatient“ TUL students and German professors, simply not being used to such time pressure… You can imagine the result… The lesson you have to learn from that is, that cross-cultural cooperation only works, if you manage to step into the other one’s shoes at least up to some degree, i. e. if you acquire the ability to see things from the other one’s perspective.

For students, who don’t have years to adapt to such a partnership, but spend only some few semesters inside a master’s programme, this duality of regulations and cultures certainly is quite confusing and challenging. In the long run, only a certain adaption to common European rules can guarantee the smooth running of such programmes. Meanwhile, we can only aim at a common mindset of the persons, involved in teaching and administration – and I can say, we’re working on it… Still, I would insist, that the launch all in all was a big success!

AK: We asked the students as well as the academicians and other staff for their patience and understanding when we opened this double degree study programme. We were expecting difficulties. You should know, the double degree study programme of International Management is unique also due to the proximity of the two campuses: The students study a half of each week in Zittau, Germany and the other half in Liberec, Czechia commuting regularly between the two countries.

This obviously could not be the case during the corona pandemics. Corona has taught us a lot, we started using the means of remote communication such as Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams and other platforms for education, but also for normal communication. I am sure many of us actually like the advantages of it. On the other hand, we also value the direct personal contact and face-to-face discussions much more now when we know they are not granted. We all are learning a lot on the go and that is how the progress has been made. I am very keen to see how smoothly the study programme will work in the upcoming academic year 2021/2022 and how far we have progressed.

IHI Newsletter: What is ACC president Claus‘ mission statement?

TC: At the end of my term, I want to see the members of the ACC cooperating more intensively than they do today. Each step, taken into that direction, is important. But first of all, we have to talk in order to develop a common vision – and this common vision isn’t neccessarily „MY“ vision!