The core of the ECIU University is the challenge-based approach – the model where students, learners and researchers cooperate with cities and businesses to solve real-life challenges. Students, who want to make a real impact in their community or another European region are welcomed to join this semesters’ micro-modules and engage in solving challenges.
Starting from the autumn semester 2020, the ECIU University members welcome students to join multi-disciplinary and, in some cases, international teams to solve real-life challenges. The ECIU University challenge modules focus on different aspects of making cities and regions sustainable and therefore addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11).
The challenges are provided by the business companies and governmental institutions that are the valuable partners and stakeholders of the ECIU University. Each member university has selected several challenges from their region, city or community, and invite students to join the teams and work on the specific challenge. The challenges vary from “Efficient management of resources in Kaunas city” at Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania, to “Carbon emission neutral city 2025” at Linköping University, Sweden, and many others.
Next to participating in the challenge, students will be able to choose from a variety of micro-modules which support them to better solve the challenge such as “International Production Management and Enterprise Resource Planning” offered by the Hamburg University of Technology, Germany, among many others. Part of the micro-modules are not challenge-based but will enable students to learn more about regional and international societal issues related to SDG 11 “Sustainable Cities and Communities”.
The enrolment requirements to the challenge-related modules and other micro-modules, learning type and length depend on each university, so please check the list with the links to the university-specific information.
Participation in solving challenges and taking micro-modules will let students make the real impact in the community, city or region. Next to that, the challenge-based learning will enable them to work in multi-disciplinary and/or international teams, learn inter-cultural competences, develop problem-solving and team-work competences. Last but not least, the participation in the challenge means trying out a new way of learning and co-creating the ECIU University – one of the first European Universities that paves the new way for education on the European scale. Check the full list of the modules and challenges provided.
If the students were not able to register for the challenges and micro-modules this autumn semester, new challenges to solve await in the spring semester 2021. Stay tuned!