MCI tops 2017 Universum Rankings
Awards Management

MCI as Austria’s only academic institution to take first place in two of three categories of the 2017 Universum Ranking: the number one in Employability and Career Service

Management Center Innsbruck (MCI) celebrates yet another international success: the recently published Universum Ranking (2017 Universum Talent Survey) has put MCI at the top of the Austrian academic landscape again. The Entrepreneurial School® is notably the only academic institution in Austria that has taken first place in two of, altogether, three categories.

MCI was awarded first place in the Strongest Focus on Employability category. This category rates the schools’ services in preparing students for the labor market, which are among the top priorities of the Entrepreneurial School®. The students awarded top marks particularly for MCI’s excellent reputation among potential employers, its high employment rate of graduates, its provision of practically-relevant training and immediately-applicable knowledge, its strong network with the business world, as well as its entrepreneurial approach and way of thinking.

MCI also secured first place in the Best Career Service category, which assesses the work of the universities’ career centers. With a score of 8.2 points, which is unique among Austrian universities, whose average score is 6.5 points, MCI has once again been placed at the very top. According to the students, the most important activities organized by the MCI Career Center are the preparatory career and application workshops, the excellent career platform for MCI students, and the annual Recruiting Forum held at MCI, which is considered an effective platform for exchange and communication between potential employers and students.

Time to MODERNise your teaching
Management

Today in our blog post we present you the Erasmus + funded project “MODERN” partnered by one of our EEE Project alliance partners Canice Consult. We wish you a happy reading!

For decades teaching and training has very much so focused on the didactic teaching methods; the usual chalk and talk, PowerPoint presentations and question and answering (the traditional lecturing or teacher “knows all” model). However, as time progresses digital literacy and e- learning have become an ever-increasing norm in society, and as result new teaching and training methods are evolving.  Andragogy (adult learning) is a theory that holds a set of assumptions about how adults learn. It uses approaches to learning that are problem-based and collaborative.

The www.modern.pm  project focuses on the delivery of these new teaching and training methods – particularly with regard to the role of digital in teaching and training. The team behind Modern have put together a toolkit evaluating and selecting the best and most effective digital teaching tools; tools in which they have tried and tested and believe to be the most effective in engaging individuals. The toolkit itself looks at 24 different tools which are split into a 10 category system, the system is designed in such a way to make it easier for individuals to identify what they can add to their teaching/ training to increase its effectiveness. For example, if you are tired of PowerPoint and want to add extra interest to your presentations you can choose from the top 2 recommendations in Presentation Software/Animation Tools section.

Digital and e- learning has progressed rapidly since the coining of the term ‘e-learning’ and now encompasses websites, ebooks, social media and online communities, online lectures, webinars, podcasts and microblogging. As such, it has proven to be a viable way of training and developing people in organisational and classroom settings, and one that forms part (though not all) of an organisation’s wider learning strategy. We, at Modern believe that the toolkit itself is a rich resource that encourages teachers and trainers to incorporate new and exciting tools into their delivery in order to engage and motivate their audience.

To view the toolkit and other useful resources please go to the project website www.modern.pm, and stay up to date with what the team is up to by following the project Facebook account at https://www.facebook.com/ModernProject/?ref=bookmarks.

Halle Wraps up an Eventful Month
Events Management Regional Alliances

Univations participates in DAAD Workshop to bring EEE dissemination to the next level

On 27.04.2017 Mr. Florian  Bratzke, European Project Officer at EEE Partner Univations GmbH, joined an one day PR workshop organised by German Academic Exchange Service DAAD in Bonn. During the workshop, innovative techniques for dissemination of project progress and results have been introduced to German Erasmus+ consortium leaders and partners. Going along with the high internal quality standards set to guarantee the project’s success, EEE partners agreed to intensify their efforts to disseminate project related outcomes. The insights from the DAAD workshop will support EEE partner to life up to this goal.

 

Univations prepares for German National Launch of EEE

On May 5th, Daniel Worch, CEO of EEE Partner Univations GmbH, has met with representatives from Saxony-Anhalt EU-Service-Agency to discuss the German EEE national launch which will take the 21st of November 2017 in Halle. During this high-level one-day-conference, participants from HEIs, VETs, Business and the political scene will be introduced to the main outcomes of EEE asked for productive feedback to improve the open educational resources. As the event will be organised in conjunction with Saxony-Anhalt EU-Service-Agency, EEE related subjects will be also part of the agenda and presented by guest speakers. One of the main speakers will be Mr. David Fenners, Policy Officer for Research & Innovation, State Aid & Procurement and Regional Policy at the Representation of the State of Saxony-Anhalt to the EU. Univations will host the event at the heart of Technology Parc Weinberg Campus.

 

Successful 3rd stakeholder meeting of EEE Regional Alliance in Halle

The German branch of the EEE consortium has met for the 3rd Regional Alliance Stakeholder Meeting on 18.05.2017 in Magdeburg, capital city of Saxony-Anhalt. After a short introductory note from Univations CEO Daniel Worch, Stakeholders were introduced to the latest developments within EEE and informed about the German EEE National Launch taking place 21.11.2017 at Technology Parc Weinberg Campus in Halle. One part of the event the was also dedicated to Prof. Dr. Graham Hortons Founders Playbook, which has the potential to ideally complement the EEE Teaching Toolkit when it comes to the point where students actually want to start-up a company. Prof. Horten explicitly asked participants to contribute their expertise to the Playbook, a process the EEE consortium has started as well with the pilot testing of the first module from the EEE teaching toolkit during the MLU Gründerservice Entrepreneurship week in May. As a matter of fact, stakeholders of the 3rd EEE alliance meeting agreed to intensify cooperation in the next months in order to draft a set of joint actions for improving entrepreneurship education in the region.

 

Second EEE partner meeting held in Szeged
Events Management

Second consortium meeting of the EEE Project was hosted by the University of Szeged (SZTE) Knowledge Management Center in the city of Szeged, Hungary. The meeting set the platform for the project representatives to share progress on their work packages, and discuss arrangements on the pilot-testing of the entrepreneurship courses in partner locations.

The two-day program gave the participants the opportunity to present their work in detail on the major agenda topics, i.e. the development of the EEE Alliance Road Map, EEE Teaching Toolkit, multimedia resources, and project dissemination activities, as well as exchanging ideas on the upcoming tasks, in particular, possible platforms for the pilot-testing of the courses in the partner universities- and potential challenges in implementation. The presentations overall have led to productive discussions on the nature of the ‘EEE Regional Alliance Development Roadmap’ (SZTE), and the teaching methodologies of the individual modules presented in the ‘EEE Teaching Toolkit for Entrepreneurship Education’ (MCI).

USZ Semester Course on Entrepreneurship

Szeged team has taken concrete steps to offer their 5-credit new EEE course ‘Entrepreneurship Education’ to USZ students from 11 study programs, starting from September 2017. The course is highly promising in its offerings. In the model, not only the business leaders will be involved with the course lecturing, but also the Department of Economics Master’s program students will provide mentoring to the enrolled students throughout the semester. Pilot teaching of the courses are  foreseen to take place at the ‘Entrepreneurship Camp’ in the summer of 2017 at MCI, during which coaching and mentoring sessions are offered to MCI students, and at ‘Entrepreneurship Weeks’ in May 2017 at MLU, in collaboration with the Univations EEE Project representatives.

The meeting was a success in terms of its outcomes, supported by the generous hospitality of the host partners. The participants enjoyed a city sightseeing tour after the first day of the meeting, followed by traditional Hungarian dishes and drinks during a dinner organized by the Szeged project representatives.

The next partner meeting is planned to take place in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, on 17-18 October.

 

The EEE Project hits the ground running
Management

The EEE Project consortium partners came together in the kick-off meeting held at the Univations main office on December 5th-6th, 2016. The meeting brought together eight representatives from five partner institutions: Univations, University of Szeged (USZ), Management Center Innsbruck (MCI), Canice Consulting, and UIIN. 

The meeting proved to be a productive one, with a busy agenda covered in detail to ensure a solid project implementation process from the very beginning. Following the welcome and introductions by Univations representatives, each partner delivered a short presentation on the respective project teams, assigned work packages, responsibilities, and estimated timelines for the activities they will undertake during the course of the project. Conversations focused on the planning and operational aspects of the three main intellectual outputs (IOs); IO1 Regional Alliances, IO2 the Entrepreneurship Promotion Campaign, and IO3 Entrepreneurship Teaching Toolkit, as well as dissemination, quality management and evaluation strategies, multiplier events, and other topics related to the overall management of the project.

After an intensive one-and-half day project discussions, the partners had the opportunity to taste traditional German Christmas cuisine at a dinner organised by Univations. The meeting was later concluded with final remarks on the next steps, and targets to be achieved until the next project meeting.