[2019] BSE Athens

Plato’s Symposium Vol II: Diversity

BSE ATHENS 2019 Athens, Greece 13th - 22nd of July 2019 PREPARED FOR Educational Involvement Department Board of European Students of Technology

PREPARED BY Silvia Marogel (Bucharest, Romania) Răsvan Manea (Cluj-Napoca, Romania) Lourenço Steel Hart (Almada, Portugal) Zhivko Serafimoski (Skopje, North Macedonia)

Table of contents 1. Preface

2

1.1 Acknowledgements

2

Local BEST Group Athens

2

Educational Involvement Department of BEST

2

1.2 Introduction

3

Board of European Students of Technology

3

BEST Symposia on Education

3

BEST Symposium on Education Athens 2019

3

2. Methodology

8

2.1 Sessions

9

Types of diversity

9

Cultural Diversity 101

14

Current situation in universities

16

Improving Cultural Diversity in Universities

21

Extra-curricular activities in university

24

Impact of Cultural Diversity in everyday life

25

Cultural diversity within human relations

27

Handling change and taking advantage of it

30

Responsibilities of students

32

Workshop on finding solutions

34

Sustainable development of cultural diversity

40

Cultural diversity in the workplace

42

Parking Lot

44

3. Project

45

Background

45

Methodology

46

Outcomes

46

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1. Preface 1.1 Acknowledgements BEST Symposium on Education (BSE) “Plato's Symposium Vol II: Diversity” took place from the 13th until the 22nd of July 2019. However, its preparation had begun over 8 months before it actually took place. During that time, there were several contributions that the authors of this report deemed necessary to acknowledge.

Local BEST Group Athens To the Local BEST Group (LBG) Athens, which hosted and took care of the entire logistics of the event, with the support of the National Technical University of Athens, thank you very much for all your effort.

A personal acknowledgement to the Main Organisers of BSE Athens, Irida and Konstantina, and the rest of the organizers Core Team of the event - Danai, Vaggelis and Maria.

Main Organisers: Konstantina Vasilakou and Irida Bournia Logistics Responsible: Danai Brilli Social Responsible: Vaggelis Patounas PR/Design responsible: Maria Chioteli President of LBG Athens 2018-2019: Suzanna Michailidi President of LBG Athens 2019-2020: Antonios Bikas

Educational Involvement Department of BEST BSE Athens is a project supervised by the Educational Involvement Department of BEST. Through this department, BEST strives to raise awareness on educational matters, gather students’ input about them and then disseminate them to the relevant bodies.

For that, we would like to acknowledge the effort of this department naming its Coordinators for the past and present year.

Educational Involvement Department Coordinator 2018-2019: João Moita Educational Involvement Department Coordinator 2019-2020: Silvia Marogel For more information, please check the following links: Homepage of BEST/Educational Involvement: www.best.eu.org/educationalInvolvement Homepage of Local BEST Group Athens: http://best.ntua.gr/ Homepage of NTUA: https://www.ntua.gr/en/

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1.2 Introduction Board of European Students of Technology Board of European Students of Technology (BEST) is a constantly growing non-representative, non-political and non-profit voluntary student organisation, whose mission is to develop students.

One of the core activities of BEST is the organisation of BEST courses, which aims to supplement the skills and outlook of European students of technology. Since the founding of BEST in 1989, more activities have been adapted to its vision of empowering diversity, counting European BEST Engineering Competition (EBEC), BEST Career Day (BCD) and the BEST Symposia on Education (BSE).

A special unit of BEST is dedicated to connecting students of technology with contemporary educational topics on engineering education. Through the Educational Involvement Department, BEST strives to listen to the students’ ideas on what can be changed in their universities, study programmes and curricula. BEST is eager to be in close collaboration with the stakeholders of higher education, letting them know about innovative solutions, coming directly from the main receivers of education - students.

BEST is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union and cooperates with a number of corporate, career support, project and university partners to provide its services.

BEST Symposia on Education BEST Symposia on Education (BSE) were created to involve students in the process of educational improvement and raise their awareness about the possibility of students being involved in their education. Together with the other stakeholders involved directly or indirectly in educational matters, students discuss a variety of education-related topics. BEST counts on both the participants of the event and the stakeholders to provide insights on current educational matters in a most active way, in order to influence changes in education across Europe.

In BEST Symposia on Education, participants are given the opportunity to express their thoughts on educational matters, which are then presented in the events’ final reports. Reports are used as a resource for writing papers on particular topics, typically submitted and presented in scientific conferences dealing with Higher Educational matters, thus making students’ voices heard.

BEST Symposium on Education Athens 2019 The main topic of the BEST Symposium on Education 2019 Athens was Cultural diversity in STEM Education. The topic is highly related to BEST’s vision (Empower diversity) and multiculturalism and wants to highlight the presence of cultural diversity in education and the importance of it.

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Purpose of BSE Athens The purposes of the BEST Symposium on Education 2019 Athens were the following: - Raising students’ awareness of education-related matters, and gathering input from tertiary-level students of STEM fields on various subjects regarding STEM education; - Participants, individually, had the opportunity to practice and develop multiple soft skills such as presentation skills, interpersonal and communication skills, as well as improve their international interdisciplinary cooperation and teamwork.

Schedule Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

13/7

14/7

15/7

16/7

17/7

18/7

19/7

20/7

21/7

08:00

Wake up

Wake up

Wake up

Wake up

Wake up

Wake up

08:30

Breakfast

Breakfast

Breakfast

Breakfast

Breakfast

Breakfast

09:00 Official opening

09:30 10:00 10:30

Introduction Improvements in cultural in universities diversity

11:30

12:30

22/7

Cultural Benefits of cultural diversity in Responsabilities diversity at the the everyday of students workplace life

Coffee break Coffee break Coffee break Coffee break

11:00

12:00

Current situation in universities

Monday

Coffee break

Handling change and how to take advantage of it

Workshop on Solutions

Sustainable development of cultural diversity

Lunch

Lunch

Lunch

Arrival Lunch

13:00

Lunch

13:30 14:00 Types of diversity

14:30 15:00

Weekend Activities

15:30 16:00

Extra-curricular Cultural diversity activities in within human

universities

relations

Parking lot

Coffee break Coffee break Coffee break Coffee break

How to solve cultural diversity issues in universities #2 Coffee break

16:30

Cultural Diversity 101

Practice session #1

Practice session #2

Practice session #3

17:00

Transport

Transport

Transport

Transport

Cultural Activities

Cultural Activities

Cultural Activities

Cultural Activities

Official closing

Transport

Transport

Transport

Transport

Transport

Dinner

Dinner

Dinner

Dinner

Dinner

Free time

Free time

Free time

Free time

Free time

Social activities

Social activities

Social activities

Social activities

Social activities

17:30 18:00 18:30

Free time

Weekend Activities

Departure

How to solve cultural diversity issues in universities #2

19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30

Dinner

21:00 21:30 22:00 22:30

Social

The event took place between 13 July 2019 to 22 July 2019 and was hosted by National Technical University of Athens. The exact schedule of the event can be found above.

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Content team of BSE Athens Alongside the experts on education, a content team of BEST members designed the sessions of BSE Athens. Their contact information is shown below.

BSE Coordinator Silvia Marogel

E-mail: silvia.marogel@BEST.eu.org

BSE Facilitators Răsvan Adrian Manea

E-mail: rasvan.adrian.manea@BEST.eu.org

Lourenço Steel Hart

E-mail: lourenco.hart@BEST.eu.org

Zhivko Serafimoski

E-mail: zhivko.serafimoski@BEST.eu.org

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Academic partners of BSE Athens BEST acknowledges the great privilege of cooperating with experts on educational topics as academic partners of BSE Athens. The expertise of partners on the events contributed to the relevance of the discussion and insight into the perspectives of the academic and industrial worlds. The experts contributed to the discussion panel which was held on the official opening day of the BSE. BEST would like to pay special respect to the partners, who contributed to raising awareness of educational matters among students and shared their research, experience and expertise.

Antonia Moropoulou Professor and Director of the Laboratory of Materials Science and Engineering, National Technical University of Athens Yannis Caloghirou Professor of Economics of Technology & Industrial Strategy, National Technical University of Athens Alexandra Bousiou PhD Researcher on Immigration Policies at the University of Gothenburg Panagiota Rouni Professor at the Natural Technical University of Athens

Discussion panel On the official opening day of BSE Athens, a discussion panel was held where the participants got to know the experts and listen to their experience in working in culturally diverse environments within STEM education and how big of an impact it has on our day to day lives.

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Participants of BSE Athens A total of 20 students of technology were engaged in the sessions of BSE Athens.

University

Nationality

Gender

Age

Warsaw University of Technology

Poland

Male

23

Bauman Moscow State Technical University

Russian Federation

Female

24

Wroclaw University of Science and Technology

Poland

Male

24

Vinnytsia National Technical University

Ukraine

Female

20

University of Novi Sad

Serbia

Female

25

Royal Institute of Technology

Sweden

Female

20

Technical University of Catalonia

Spain

Female

24

University of Belgrade

Serbia

Female

24

University of Zagreb

Croatia

Male

23

University of Maribor

North Macedonia

Female

21

Czech Technical University in Prague

Czechia

Male

24

Budapest University of Technology and Economics

Hungary

Male

25

Polytechnic University of Turin

Italy

Male

21

University of Lisbon

Portugal

Male

19

Technical University of Madrid

Spain

Female

23

University of Aveiro

Portugal

Male

20

University of Coimbra

Portugal

Female

21

Slovak University of Technology

Slovakia

Female

23

University of Zagreb

Croatia

Female

25

Carlos III University of Madrid

Spain

Female

20

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2. Methodology Discussion group A discussion group is an interactive oral process in which a group of people is given a topic or a situation and after reflecting on it for a few minutes, they discuss their points of view with each other.

The opinions and ideas are expressed in a systematic way.

World Café World Café methodology is a simple, effective and flexible format for hosting large group dialogues.

Participants are divided into groups, each starting from a different spot or table. Each table has a specific topic which is being discussed. Discussions are recorded and after the allocated time, groups change tables. After moving to the new table, groups familiarize themselves with what was previously discussed there and then the new group adds its ideas. This process is repeated until all the groups have been to all the tables. Finally, the ideas from each table are presented to all the participants.

Brainstorming Brainstorming is a structured process which encourages the generation of a large number of ideas in a group setting. All ideas are recorded and no judgments or evaluations are made. It is perhaps the most popular technique used in groups to expand the thinking process. Brainstorming works on the premise that even crazy and “wild” ideas should be listed, as they may spark new and practical ideas that would otherwise not have surfaced. Participants of the brainstorming session are encouraged to contribute any ideas and to build upon others’ ideas.

SWOT analysis A SWOT analysis is a process which identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organisation, situation or plan. Specifically, SWOT is a basic, analytical framework that assesses what an organisation/situation/plan can and cannot do, as well as its potential opportunities and threats. A SWOT analysis takes information from an environmental analysis and separates it into internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as its external opportunities and threats.

Finger rules The act of facilitating a session or discussion through the use of hand signs derived from sign language.

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Role-play Role-playing represents consciously acting out an adopted role. As a facilitation tool, it is commonly used in order to make people think about specific scenarios. Usually, a role-play is done by 2 or 3 people from a group and based on their acting, a discussion starts. In this way, all the people from the group imagine the particularities of any situation and have a better perception of why or how is it happening and how it can improve.

Parking Lot Usually, in an event with more discussions participants don’t always have the time to say all that they want in the time allocated for each session. In order for them to have the chance to deeply discuss any topic, the Parking lot came up.

Throughout the event, participants can propose topics for the Parking lot and in the session, they decide what they want to discuss, based on their own preferences. The session is briefly facilitated just to make sure that the conversation goes smoothly, but the overall direction of it is decided only by the participants.

Sessions Types of diversity Facilitators: Silvia Marogel, Răsvan Manea

Background Throughout time, diversity as a concept has spread across the world, and has been remarked by many different groups of people, institutions or policymakers. Nations across the world have adopted laws in favour of empowering diversity, but not every entity manages to adapt at the same pace as the others, leading to inequalities.

In universities, diversity is mostly faced by students. Regardless of the time, there are always students that fight for a change, that encounter difficulties in their classes or that are just bystanders.

This session combined two different parts that emphasised on different types of diversity.

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Part 1 Methodology In the first part, students were given a list of nine types of diversity: - Race and ethnicity - Age and generation - Gender and gender identity - Sexual orientation - Religious and spiritual belief - Disability and ability - Socioeconomic status - Thinking style and personality - Personal life experience They were divided into four groups, and each of the groups had to answer the following questions, in a World Café display.

- What is the most undervalued type of diversity?

- What kind of diversity do you see as most important to have in your studies?

- From the presented list, which type do you consider to be most overvalued?

- How much would you like to know on what other students think about diversity issues?

Outcomes For the question “What is the most undervalued type of diversity?” the answers were: - Three out of four teams identified “personal life experience” as the most undervalued. The reasons behind it were the difficulty to relate to life experiences between people, underestimation, no clear way to name it.

- Two out of four teams identified “age and generation” as another undervalued type of diversity.

Each generation category tends to spend time with those from the same generation, instead of trying to mix and exchange opinions or experiences.

- Other types identified as undervalued: - “Socioeconomic status”: people tend to spend time with the ones that have the same incomes; - “Disability and ability”.

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For the question “What kind of diversity do you see as most important to have as part of your studies?” the answers were: - Two out of four teams identified “socio-economic diversity” as most important. The reasons behind it were the need to have equal rights and access to education, the incompatibility of the study programme and schedule with having a job to pay for the studies.

- Two out of four teams identified “thinking style and personality”. The reason was common, having different perspectives in a class or team leads to open-mindedness, better problem solving and better team dynamics.

- Two out of four teams identified “Race and ethnicity”, with the reason of being prepared to work in a multicultural environment, getting to see more diverse perspectives that can be mind-opening.

- Another type identified was “Personal life experience,'' for the same reason of seeing diverse perspectives that can lead to enlarging their understanding.

For the question “From the presented list, which side do you consider to be most overvalued?” the answers were: - Three out of four teams identified gender diversity and sexual orientation as most overvalued, for the reason of tending to turn into extremism when it comes to feminism and LGBT. - One team stated that none of the types of diversity is overvalued, but some tend to be overpromoted than others.

For the question “How much would you like to know what other students think about diversity issues?” the answers were: - All the teams agreed that it is important to know other students’ opinions about diversity, in order to better understand the problems and their roots, and this knowledge can help them find the solutions to further empower diversity.

Part 2 Methodology In the second part, students were divided into six groups and they were each given a situation to act.

Every situation included the role of the professor and the students that were unhappy about an issue that led to discrimination.

After each team presented their decision and their acts, participants were asked why they chose to make those decisions.

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Outcomes Role 1: After finding the results of an exam, two students don’t think that they were fairly treated. They believe that the professor gave more points to one of their colleagues with a vision impairment only because of his disability.

Result: The students decide to meet the professor and speak out.

The professor decided not to apply any corrections to the grade, since he believed that his treatment was right. He admitted that he has a different treatment to the student with a disability, but he didn’t see any problem with it.

Role 2: Two female students in mechanical engineering faced gender discrimination when looking for an internship. This made them decide to change their study programme and in order to do so, they are meeting with a professor to discuss it.

Result: The professor told the students that if they really want to achieve something, they have to fight for it.

So he advised them to be persistent and become better, but if they decided to move to a different study programme, they could do it.

Role 3: At the end of the semester, two students discover that their only female colleague from the class got a higher grade. Since they think that she didn’t work hard enough to receive that grade, the students believe that the professor did it only to promote gender diversity.

Because they don’t find the situation fair, they decide to meet the professor and tell him their opinion.

Result: The participants decided that the scenario is too extreme and it will never happen in real life so they saw no point in doing the role play. The rest of the participants agree that they haven’t seen a similar case and it’s less likely to see one.

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Role 4: Two students applied to be part of a research group. After they got accepted, they found out that the leader of the group is a Hindu colleague. Since they believe that Hindu people are lazy, they want to change their research group.

Since a professor has to agree on their move, they are meeting with him for a conversation about it.

Result: The professor told the students not to base their judgement on stereotypes and since they haven’t even met the Hindu colleague, to be patient and see how he is.

Role 5: Two students are working on a project for University. They found out that one Erasmus student will join their team for the rest of the semester and that means that they will have to communicate and work in English. Even if the two students know English they are not confident enough to use it.

Therefore they decide to speak with the responsible professor about it.

Result: The professor showed the students the bright side of the scenario, which is that they could improve their English. She also offered to help them in the whole project.

Role 6: A Romani student comes to a professor complaining that another student offended him by calling him “gypsy”.

What will the teacher do?

Result: The participants decided that the scenarios is too extreme and it will never happen in real life so they saw no point in doing the role play. The rest of the participants agree that they haven’t seen a similar case and it’s less likely to see one.

Role 7: A student with a mobility impairment cannot attend laboratory work. By not attending, they risk failing the subject. He/she decides to talk with the laboratory assistant to see if he/she can be excused.

Result: In this scenario, the professor decided to be strict and follow the rules without excusing the student.

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The students that played the professor explained the reasoning behind their acting: - Some of the participants agreed that it was based on their experience with their professors, that are less flexible when it comes to rules and less understanding of students’ problems.

- Some of the participants had the opposite experience with their professors, that are more open to talk with students about their problems and find solutions.

The students that played the students explained the reasoning behind their acting: - In some cases, the professors are open to discuss and give suggestions to students, so they felt comfortable to communicate with them.

- Most of the participants found the scenarios uncomfortable, because they were depicting situations that were too extreme.

Other observations: - Most of the participants realised during the exercise that these situations might happen and they should be considerate towards them, even if they had never witnessed one.

- Based on their personal experience, it was hard for them to decide how to act, because of the different perspectives.

Cultural Diversity 101 Facilitators: Zhivko Serafimoski, Lourenço Steel Hart

Background Cultural diversity is defined as the existence of a variety of cultural or ethnic groups within a society.

With this in mind, it is safe to say that cultural diversity is present in several areas of our lives, whether it be university, work or our everyday lives. Based off of where it occurs, it can have different types of impact, targeted towards us, or to our environment.

The objective of this session was to define how cultural diversity impacts the four main areas of our lives as students: our personal lives, our universities, our lives after university and whether universities are prepared to take on such environments.

Methodology The session began by bridging back to the transversal session and discussion panel held that day. The participants expressed their opinions on the varying topics that were tackled. The main points were that the participants noticed how there is always a way around issues stemming from cultural diversity, based off of the examples given by the experts present during the discussion panel.

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Moving forward, the participants were met with a World CafĂŠ. The four topics tackled by the World CafĂŠ were as follows: 1. How does cultural diversity impact us?

2. How does cultural diversity impact university?

3. How does cultural diversity impact our lives after university?

4. Are universities prepared to accept multicultural environments? Why/Why not?

The participants had 15 minutes to write their ideas down on the flip charts presented.

After the participants were done with the World CafĂŠ, the facilitators moved on to read their answers.

Afterwards, the participants were asked to state what was their thought process when writing down their answers.

Outcomes For question 1 (How does cultural diversity impact us?), the most common conclusions were: - Higher tolerance to different approaches thought processes and working methods.

- There are many areas where students benefit from cultural diversity, such as working in a professional environment or being open-minded and more accepting of people from different cultures.

- Students tend to be more respectful towards people from differing cultures.

- Students can develop themselves more (i.e. their communication skills) and can become more confident.

- Students can be confused in some situations (i.e. what would be the appropriate way to approach students from other cultures).

For question 2 (How does cultural diversity impact university?), the following conclusions were made: - Cultural diversity makes studying a richer and more impactful experience, both in a social and academic context.

- The students in universities which house a culturally diverse environment are more open-minded - Increased critical thinking and increased social capability.

- Students experience things out of the ordinary student life.

- Students are more prepared for similar situations that they may face in the future.

For question 3 (How does cultural diversity impact our lives after university), the conclusions are as follows: - Students have an increased level of tolerance in the workplace.

- Students have a broader view and can see things from different perspectives easier.

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- Students are more prepared to enter society.

- It may make finding a job in a foreign country much easier, as students will already have built connections with foreign students.

- Students feel more inspired to explore the world and broaden their views further.

- Students become more competent when working with challenging people.

For question 4 (Are universities prepared to accept multicultural environments? Why/Why not?), the following conclusions were drawn: - Some of the participants stated that universities are prepared to adapt to such environments, as they can: - Enrich the studying experience - Develop more competent students - Provide a safe space for foreign students to interact with local students - Some of the participants had a contrasting statement, stating that universities are not ready to adapt to such environments, because: - They don’t have programs that are adapted in a common language (i.e. English) - They don’t have programs for foreigners - It highly depends on the country in which the university is located in - The local students may not accept it easily, due to propaganda or other means of affecting their mindset towards multicultural environments When the students were asked what their mindset was when answering the questions mentioned before, they based their answers off of either personal experience or how they imagine it would be, as not all of the students have experienced it.

Most of the students who gave their answers from personal experience have stated that they were either Erasmus students or are members of NGOs.

Current situation in universities Facilitators: Silvia Marogel, Zhivko Serafimoski

Background Universities have different ways of embracing cultural diversity. Some are more prepared than others to welcome and integrate foreign students, through classes and teaching methods, or through different integration programmes. Gaps and problems arise in these systems, and students are the first ones to be aware of them.

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This session aims to take the context from each university from the students’ perspective and identify common problems that are found in all universities present.

Methodology Participants were asked to answer three questions related to their current context in the universities they study. The questions were: - How do the professors behave with and around foreign students in your university?

- How do students behave with and around foreign students in your university?

- Does the university provide support and materials for foreign students?

The participants were divided into two groups, each facilitated by one of the facilitators from the content team, and they worked in parallel.

After answering the questions, they had to point out the common problems that they notice in each university.

Outcomes How do the professors behave with and around foreign students in your university?

University of Zagreb

Professors don’t know English.

University of Aveiro

The professors treat all students the same.

Czech Technical University in Prague

There are no classes taught in English.

Slovak University of Technology

There are no classes in English, but in the first year of University students can learn Slovakian. Teachers help with materials in English.

University of Belgrade

Students need to learn Serbian, they have a year to learn it. Professors help them with their studies.

University of Novi Sad

Professors help students with materials in English.

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Technical University of Catalonia

Most of the professors have materials in English, but there are some that teach only in Catalan.

Most of the students learn Spanish. For

Technical University of Madrid

the subjects that are more difficult, the professors dissuade students from taking them.

Warsaw University of Technology

Professors go easier on foreign students.

University of Maribor

Professors offer to help foreign students.

Carlos III University of Madrid

Professors help foreign students; they offer extra classes and tutorials.

Royal Institute of Technology

Professors treat all students the same.

Bauman Moscow State Technical University

Professors offer to help, especially with learning Russian.

Technical University of Vienna

Professors speak English, they tend to teach easier classes to foreign students.

Budapest University of Technology

Professors don’t speak English, and they

and Economics

teach classes for foreign students at an easier level.

University of Lisbon

Professors have classes in English if there are foreign students joining.

Wroclaw University of Science

Professors are more considerate to

and Technology

foreign students and help them.

Table 1. Participants’ opinion on professors’ behaviour

How do students behave with and around foreign students in your university?

University of Zagreb

Students don’t have the mentality to interact with foreign students.

Some students have problems with

University of Aveiro

putting in extra work for a university with foreign students (i.e. team assignments or projects), because of the language barrier.

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University of Belgrade

Students are perceived equally, because they usually have individual projects.

Slovak University of Technology

Students that come from countries understand the language, so local students interact more often with them.

In other cases, they don’t.

University of Zagreb

Local students lack motivation and curiosity to interact with foreign students.

Technical University of Madrid

During classes, they work all together with no problems. Outside classes, they don’t interact so much, because of the language barrier.

Carlos III University of Madrid

Students try to integrate foreign students, but they form groups and don’t accept local students.

Royal Institute of Technology

Students don’t approach foreign students, because they are shy or because foreigners prefer to group and work together.

University of Coimbra

Foreign students that speak integrate easier with local students.

Local students tend not to study and

University of Lisbon

work with foreign students, because they are more competitive and foreign students tend to take classes softly.

Wroclaw University of Science

Local students act normally around

and Technology

foreign students, but they prefer to work with locals because of the language barrier.

Table 2. Participants’ opinion on students’ behaviour

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Does the university provide support and materials for foreign students?

University of Aveiro

Lectures are in English.

Technical University of Catalonia

Catalan and Spanish lessons, cultural classes and social activities.

University of Novi Sad

Serbian lessons for free, with certification.

Technical University of Madrid

Angel system: a local that helps the foreign student

University of Belgrade

There is nothing extra provided.

University of Zagreb

We have an organisation that helps foreign students integrate.

Slovak University of Technology

Materials and tools in English, free Slovakian lessons.

Warsaw University of Technology

The materials are the same, but foreign students receive easier tasks or exercises, and they pass easier than locals.

University of Maribor

There are special classes for foreigners for free. Foreign students can’t receive scholarships.

Carlos III University of Madrid

All the degrees are in English, they can pick different classes from different branches and fulfill the curriculum.

Royal Institute of Technology

The university is prepared to have foreign students.

Polytechnic University of Turin

The courses are available in both Italian and English, and they are open to every student. Courses in Italian are more difficult than those for international students.

University of Coimbra

There are classes with materials translated to English.

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University of Lisbon

Lectures have special materials in English for foreign students.

Wroclaw University of Science

Classes in English are more difficult than

and Technology

those in Polish.

Table 3. Participants’ opinion on university support

The common problems that were identified by the participants: - Segregation of students: foreign students form groups and they don’t interact with local students. On the other hand, local students don’t approach them or are not willing to work with them.

- No equal evaluation for students: foreign students pass easier or get special treatment - Lack of curiosity and interest from students - Language barrier for both students and professors

Improving Cultural Diversity in Universities Facilitators: Răsvan Manea & Lourenço Steel Hart

Background Ensuring a multicultural environment in academic life is not easy for universities since students face a lot of problems when it comes to fitting in the new environment.

Even though universities are not the only body responsible for supporting students, there should be some minimum requirements that they should offer to the students. In order to see what and how they should do these, it’s first needed to decide upon the main obstacles that students face in universities, regarding cultural diversity and then to focus on possible solutions.

Methodology The session started with a short sum-up of the previous session and a presentation of the main problems found by the participants.

Furthermore, the participants agreed on the 4 most important problems that they would like to discuss more.

Afterwards, they tackled each problem in a World Café and in the end, each group presented the minimum that universities should do to overcome these problems, having in mind the feasibility of their ideas.

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Outcomes Firstly, from all the issues found in the previous session, the participants agreed on the segregation, equal evaluation, language barrier and curiosity as being the main issues that are currently faced by students. For each of them, they came up with solutions that universities should take in order to help students when facing them.

Problem

Proposed solutions

Segregation

Buddy programme - usual in many European Universities, it offers to all the international students a buddy, which is a local student that can give practical help with administrative issues but also to better understand the culture and habits of that country - it is a good and helpful programme that should be better promoted by universities and even reward the students that enrol in it.

Culturally diverse teams for projects - this would enable international students to bound better with local students, but mostly when working on longer-term projects. However, the participants raised a concern; they believe that both local and international students can get demotivated when not working with people from the same culture because of working methods differences.

Equal evaluation

- Evaluations to be more standardised so they are more impartial - To have 2 or more professors for all oral exams - To use a computer for randomising the subjects for exams

When discussing these solutions, it came out that some universities are already having 2 or more professors for oral exams or some standardised evaluations. Moreover, other participants shared that the students can ask their exam to be re-evaluated by a 3 professors commission. In the end, the majority agreed that universities are trying to have an equal evaluation for both local and international students, but some obligatory requirements in this sense should be in all universities.

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Problem

Proposed solutions

Language barrier

English courses for professors in order to reach a good level of understanding, speaking and writing. Also, it was discussed that younger teachers have a better English level than the older teachers and the technical vocabulary is known by these both categories. Therefore, the participants concluded that there should be different approaches for preparing teachers, but they should focus also on non-technical vocabulary as well. In addition to this, it was agreed that even if universities have some English knowledge requirements when hiring professors, they are not enough and constant training and testing should be happening.

Events in English, organised by students in order to promote different cultures and the use of different languages.

Free English courses from the university is a practice existing in some universities today and the participants strongly believed that they should be kept and improved.

Better promotion on the benefits of learning English would make students more interested in studying it.

Courses to learn the local language can also solve the language barrier.

Curiosity

Increasing the transparency and promotion of international opportunities like available scholarships, internships, programmes, students’ organisations, etc. This will increase the curiosity of students towards cultural diversity

Table 4. Proposed solutions for the most common issues regarding Cultural Diversity in Universities

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Extra-curricular activities in university Facilitators: Lourenço Steel Hart, Zhivko Serafimoski

Background Extra curricular activities are all the activities that someone might do to develop him/herself in areas that the normal education per se doesn’t allow.

As we all know, several students search for activities outside the classroom, in order to develop themselves in certain areas of their personal life, such as leadership, time management or even project management skills. Others, search for such activities in order to belong to a group or to try out new things.

The objective of this session was, however, to assess the ability that such activities have of integrating foreign students, as well as understanding what kind of activities are universities currently offering.

Methodology This session started with the following activity: A matrix is set on the ground with 4 quadrants: - They exist in my university, and I participate; - They exist in my university but I don’t participate; - They don’t exist in my university, but I participate outside; - They don’t exist in my university and I don’t participate on either.

The participants had to place themselves in the matrix and write down on a post-it what kind of activities they participate in. If they don’t, why?

Afterwards, the answers were clustered and discussed amongst the group, trying to understand what activities were there, and the added value that they may bring to students, more specifically foreign students. This discussion was taken quadrant by quadrant of the matrix.

Outcomes The main outcomes of this session were: - Depending on the activity and on the context, these activities may both integrate and/or segregate foreign students.

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- Most universities offer a certain number of activities. However, some don’t and students are forced to look for them somewhere else, especially activities related to arts and language. Our focus group seemed to think that overall, universities believe that since it’s not directly related to our fields of studies, it's not worth investing in them, to which they disagreed strongly.

- Universities overall tend to not support organisations that are associated with them, at least financially. In some rare cases, they do. These organisations are responsible for several of the extra-curricular activities in their universities, and because of that they should get more support. There are also several bureaucratic barriers that limit the communication flow between these organisations and the universities.

- There is a need for a place within the university where you can get information about the clubs and organisations that are associated with the university. A physical place. Normally, this kind of information is missing on the university's website, and there is not an office where, all year round, students can get this information.

- When there are activities but students don’t participate, it’s mostly because either they aren’t the target group for that specific activity, big fees are in order to participate, or because they don’t have time - their academic schedule is overloaded and doesn’t leave space for extra activities.

- The reason behind the lack of more activities is the lack of initiative/proactivity both from universities and students.

Impact of Cultural Diversity in everyday life Facilitators: Răsvan Manea, Zhivko Serafimoski

Background Changing the cultural environment for studies implies changes in the academic and social aspects of life. Since both of these categories have implications in people’s lives, it is important to see how much everyday life is affected by a cultural change and which are the positive and negative sides.

Methodology The session started with a discussion about culture and if it can intervene within everyday life, followed by a video showing more cases of cultural differences in order to emphasise the impact of culture in our lives. *link to the video mentioned above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xJ_hbD4TQA

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After this, the concept of everyday life was defined (Everyday life or daily life refers to the ways in which people typically act, think, and feel on a daily basis. - Wikipedia) so participants understood at what implication they should think about throughout the session. Furthermore, the participants brainstormed in groups about the benefits and issues that cultural diversity brings into everyday life.

In the end, both groups presented their outcomes and all participants discussed upon them.

Outcomes To begin with, the participants clearly agreed that culture plays an important role in our day to day life.

Benefits

Issues

Tolerance

Stigmas (eg. stereotypes)

Self-improvement in actions and way

Different understandings

of thinking Adaptation/flexibility

Miscommunication

Increased cooperation

Leaving the comfort zone

Gaining new knowledge

Breaking unwritten rules

Inclusion

Fear of the unknown Social hierarchy Table 5. Benefits & Issues of Cultural Diversity

When it came to how conclusive these outcomes are when deciding to study abroad, the participants mostly agreed that self-improvement is the benefit that is the most convincing. In addition to this, they agreed that other benefits like increasing tolerance, adaptation, cooperation come naturally while doing an exchange and students don’t necessarily think about them when making this decision.

In the end, the participants agreed that a study programme abroad brings more good than it costs, but the amount of benefits or issues that will be faced depends on each student, on how open or closed-minded he/she is. However, they believe that students usually don’t see it this way, they don’t see the benefits or they are too passive and they don’t even want to consider it.

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Cultural diversity within human relations Facilitators: Zhivko Serafimoski, Silvia Marogel

Background In their university lives, students are expected to be acquainted with the rules of proper behavior and interaction with both their peers and their superiors (i.e. professors, assistants). This part of university life is a small, yet very important branch of human relations.

Human relations are defined as relations with or between people, particularly the treatment of people in a professional context. Taking this into consideration, to say that human relations are highly affected by cultural diversity wouldn’t be far from the truth.

The main objective of this session was to define how cultural diversity affects human relations within the lives of students during their time spent in university. More specifically, how it can affect their professional interactions with fellow students and their respective authoritarian figures.

Methodology The session began with a roleplay executed by the facilitators. It consisted of the facilitators talking in their mother languages to explain a common issue which can be found in culturally diverse environments, which is the language barrier. Afterwards, the facilitators further defined the term human relations, in order to clarify any misconceptions to the participants.

Moving on, the participants were given a facilitation tool which had a string attached to it. They were then asked to attach a problem related to human relations they would face in a culturally diverse environment on the string when it was given to them. The objective was to pass it around, making sure that everyone wrote something down. This exercise provided all of the participants with another common issue which may be experienced, said experience being inclusion and therefore the lack of it.

Upon adding all of their problems, the facilitators separated the problems randomly and divided the participants into two groups and each group tackled the twenty problems they themselves provided.

Each group was instructed to find solutions to each of the problems they were given.

The session ended with a brief discussion about how human relations on a professional level could impact the social life of students.

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Outcomes The solutions provided by group 1 can be found in the table below: Problem

Solution

Different mentality that leads to misun-

Cultural education: classes, presentations,

derstanding, not being accepted

events done by the university. Events

because of your opinion

done by students associations. Make everyone aware about the differences in cultures and importance to know them.

Exclusion because of bad language skills,

Buddy or mentoring programme that

students need to also learn colloquial

can teach what is not taught in classes.

language Depression because of not being

Counseling, psychologist, call lines with

integrated, or depression that leads to

volunteers that can help.

exclusion Disagreement on working methods

Standardised working methods, develop a new common working method from the beginning of the project (like setting expectations and working methods in the first meeting).

Opposing views of the world due to

Give materials with the information and

different degrees of access to information

then give students a quiz to test their knowledge.

People are divided into groups, locals

Randomly mixing people (in teams, sits

with locals and internationals between

in the classroom, etc) without allowing

themselves

them to switch with others (also known as fruit salad game).

Different timetables for them so they can mix up.

Table 6. Outcomes of Group 1

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The solutions provided by group 2 can be found in the table below: Problem

Solution

Being treated as inferior as a result of

Promoting international exchanges

being of a different nationality

where students who attend them can learn to tolerate people from other nationalities by either being the minority or by interacting with them.

Level of professionalism (student-teacher

Implementing rules or a code of conduct

and teacher-student behavior).

for behavior which is introduced at the

To be more precise, this refers to the

beginning of every school year and is

interactions and the behavior that stems

meant to be followed by both sides -

from them. i.e. a student barges into a

professors and students.

professor’s office and doesn’t behave properly and vice versa - a professor yells at a student for an unspecified reason.

Improper prioritization of activities

Communicate things, making plans and

during academic activities (i.e. working

then setting rules and ideas to continue

with people who put their own tasks

working without having any issues later

and ideas before anyone else's during

on.

laboratory work) Misuse of humor which then leads to

Getting to know the people you are

offending people

talking to, to find their level of comfort and tolerance towards your humor and then adjusting it so no one gets offended.

Judging people without knowing their

Having students experience an

background/being ignorant

international setting where they will learn the importance of understanding and tolerance towards others and not judge people by what they’ve heard from others.

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Problem

Solution

Poor handling of the English language

Continuous English lessons to professors

from professors

in order for them to develop themselves.

Also, by giving professors the opportunity to travel, they would experience other cultures and use the English language more often, thus putting their knowledge to practice and develop it further.

Discrimination of foreign students due to

Introduce cultural evenings where all

their background

students can talk about/represent their country, their traditions, food etc.

Different examination methods in

Implementing a buddy system, with

different countries, resulting in different

which the buddy could help the new

study methods

student by showing him which areas to pay attention to, but also by adding a questions database to give students some guidelines when they study so they don’t waste time.

Table 7. Outcomes of Group 2

From the answers provided by the students, a conclusion can be drawn that both students and universities have to put in effort to avoid problems similar to the ones mentioned above, either by working to prevent them beforehand or to be prepared to neutralize them when they occur, with the final goal of having the ability to foster a safe culturally diverse environment.

As mentioned above, after the participants presented their answers, a small discussion was held on whether these kinds of situations can affect our social lives as students.

A large majority of the participants agreed, as these kinds of situations can lead students to feel like outcasts in their social lives as a lingering effect of them being outcasted in their academic lives.

Handling change and taking advantage of it Facilitators: Răsvan Manea, Lourenço Steel Hart

Background When going to study abroad, the cultural change can be really beneficial in case students succeed to

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fit in, if not, they may struggle with their studies and in the end, not gain the whole experience. The differences between these two cases can be the type of personality of a student, or it can be the support that they get from their new community.

This issue has been seen by universities and city communities and they are trying to help foreign students to adapt better and easier. But it is important to see the students’ perspective regarding the existing tools and what can be done to improve them.

Methodology The session started with a quick game to emphasise the phenomenon of change and to open a discussion about what participants understand by the word “change”. Afterwards, the participants were split into 4 groups to brainstorm on existing support tools (can be online tools, programmes, organisations, etc.) for students from inside the universities and outside of them.

In the next part, the participants presented the tools they found and then they agreed on 5 support tools that they believed that deserve the most to be further improved and worked upon. The participants worked on these 5 tools in a World Café and at the end of it, each group presented their improvement points for the tool.

Outcomes When discussing the existing support tools for students, the participants came up with a big number of initiatives such as: - Tools existing inside universities: conferences, workshops, international competitions between universities, sports events, university website, social media, NGOs, university psychologist, mentoring programme, clubs with social activities, tandem/buddy system, mental health presentations by university psychologist, international office.

- Tools existing outside universities: sports events, art events, workshops, volunteering abroad programmes, cultural festivals, language lessons, networking lessons, internet and social media, apps aimed to connect people, sports associations, magazines, events.

The 5 tools that participants decided that deserve to be improved the most were Mentoring system, Social Media, Volunteering and Competitions.

Mentoring system Mentoring systems are very beneficial for international students because they can have more personal help from someone when they face personal difficulties.

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As improvements, both local and international students should be mentors, in this way it would be better to connect with the mentees, they will feel more comfortable to share their difficulties and accept help. An initiative like this could be started from both universities and students, but coming from the university will give it more prestige.

Social Media It can be a very good influential tool in order to support, encourage and promote cultural diversity on a local or international scale. Universities can also use it with their social media channels.

When discussing this tool, the participants pointed out the difference about how to use it. Since there already is a big quantity of content that supports cultural diversity, should universities and people in general focus more on promoting it, or on creating new content of this kind. As a conclusion to the discussion, the participants agreed that both approaches should be tackled, both of them in a genuinely positive way, since there is a lot of harm that can be done through social media.

Competitions Competitions create a good environment in which international and local students can work together and by doing so they can also bound on a more personal level. As an improvement point, multidisciplinary competitions should be organised and also not to have a big difficulty level.

Interaction with judges and other participants should be eased. Having websites or even a mailing list with information about local, regional competitions.

Volunteering Create a very good environment in which international and local students can work and have fun together, creating more personal connections that could help them. As an improvement point, volunteering associations should ask for financial support from the university or companies, they should better promote volunteering opportunities and make more suitable events for students.

Responsibilities of students Facilitators: Lourenço Steel Hart, Răsvan Manea

Background In every university, students are represented by something or someone. With this session, the intention was to better understand what kind of representatives there are within our focus group, what those representatives are currently doing for their students (more specifically the foreign ones, and the local ones on cultural diversity-related topics), and what they should be doing.

By the end of the session, a list of possible improvements for these representatives should be obtained.

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Methodology Firstly, the participants had to answer a question by themselves - Do you have a student representative in your university? If yes, what do they do?

Then, they were divided into two groups, previously decided in order to ensure the diversity within them. Here, they shared their answers and compared them.

The second part of the session was a competition! Yes, a competition!

Here, both groups should, based on the previous activity, come up with what’s missing from these representatives, and prepare a “campaign program� as if the group was applying to become the next representative of a metaphorical university.

Both groups presented and explained their ideas to a panel of judges, that then decided who had the best/more feasible ideas.

Outcomes The main outcomes of these sessions can be divided into two sections: 1. What is currently happening in universities: Overall, there is a representative in every university. However the format of the representation varies: student council, student representatives for each branch, a link to the senate, etc.

Most of these representatives protect the students on topics such as schedules and exams, direct problems with professors, feedback, but on other matters different representatives have different points of view. On topics regarding cultural diversity, other organisations tend to take care of them.

The student representatives are not that involved. In addition to this, most of what students see them doing are parties and social activities. Around 50% of these groups are transparent on their work, however, independently of their transparency, there is still room for improvement.

Overall, all the representatives are elected by the students of the university/faculty. However, many times, the background of that(these) person(s) and their ideas are not that transparent or promoted.

2. What should be happening/new ideas: To begin with, transparency should be improved, regarding their work, maybe by sending monthly reports on email to students.

Continuing on what the students representatives already work on, they should focus more on making a better schedule for exams to offer students more time to study also they could create a website with materials where people can ask for feedback or some specific information.

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Regarding cultural issues, these students representatives organisation should take a more active role.

They could have a vice president for diversity who would be responsible for the international students and the students from different cultures from the same local country and he/she should be a foreign students for experience reasons. During the freshmen week, they should orgnise presentations of clubs/NGOs and also integraton parties. In addition to this, they should publish advertisement about cultural events in local language and English, make a cooperation with exchange programs associations and maybe develop a “sharing different gastronomies” programme in the cafeteria.

Besides all these, tha participants decided that the students representatives should focus less on parties and social activities and handle administrative issues such as scholarships, dorms & courses admission and cafeteria’s food.

Workshop on finding solutions Facilitators: Zhivko Serafimoski, Silvia Marogel

Background Throughout the duration of the event, the content team gathered some of the topics which the participants talked about in the sessions. Using those topics, the content team prepared case studies based off of the topics that arose previously.

The main objective of this session was to allow participants to face problems which may arise in their lives and to see how they as students could provide feasible and realistic solutions to those exact problems.

Methodology The session began with briefing the participants about their assignment. They were then divided into four groups of five participants and the case studies were randomly distributed among the groups.

They were given a set amount of time to brainstorm and construct their solutions, which they would later on present.

The cases presented to the participants were as follows: Topic 1: Eastern vs Western universities Case: A student that studies in Spain has moved to Bulgaria to pursue his studies in the field of mechatronics and AI. The student has been in Bulgaria for around 6 months now and they have noticed that they can’t adapt to the teaching methods, examination methods and social life of the university. This leaves the student failing their exams, which in term brings them closer to repeating a year.

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This issue also reduced the motivation of the student, resulting in him not wanting to interact with others, both in university during group assignments and labs, but also it stripped the student of the will to interact with people outside of university grounds, such as going to social gatherings, events etc.

Instructions: Taking a look at the case given above, we can notice that the university is failing to help foreign students in adapting to their new environments, both on an academic and on a social level. Your task will be to construct a system which the university will use to help foreign students adapt to their new surroundings, thus resulting in them having both an improved student life and an improved social life.

Topic 2: Mental Health Case: You’ve been selected to take part in a partner-based research project on producing environmentally sustainable cosmetic product packaging in a university in The Netherlands. Both you and your partner come from two different countries in Europe (i.e. Spain and Bulgaria). You and your partner have been working for over three months now and at the start you didn’t pick up on any negative changes in the mood and working habits of your partner. After those three months, you notice changes in their speech pattern (slurred, slow speech), posture (they started slouching more, they drag their feet as they walk), their facial expressions (they rarely ever smile or make eye contact with anyone) and most recently - the way they work. They have started to neglect their work, their responsibilities and they seem to have lost interest not just in the topic, but the long-term goals of the project you’re working on as well. The fact that your partner isn’t performing well doesn’t bother you, what bothers you is how you lost the contact and friendly environment you had developed over the past few months. This makes you wonder: is there anything the university can offer to help alleviate your partner’s problems?

Instructions: Based on research, these issues are caused by many factors, the most common being culture shock, nostalgia for their homeland, lack of communication with their friends and relatives back home.

Taking into consideration the fact that your colleague comes from a different country from you, it is very obvious that they have a differing culture from you as well.

Taking all of this into consideration, your task will be to construct a method offered by the university which is hosting the project which helps foreign students cope with issues such as the one mentioned in the case.

Topic 3: Innovation and innovative thinking Case: Your university has been selected to be part of an international project, funded by a European association that supports STEM research. The team of the project consists of you, as the team leader,

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and 7 other students from different universities from different countries (Germany, UK, Canada, India, Norway, Italy, Romania). As the team leader, you will be responsible to plan the team's work and assign responsibilities for the next 6 months that you will be working on it. The universities involved will receive the funds after the project is done and assessed by the judges from the foundation, which are professors in STEM, and the university puts some pressure on you, in order to meet the objectives and come up with an innovative outcome. You already met your teammates once and you know basic details about them (like their age, field of study, nationality).

Instructions: Based on the situation given, you have to come up with a plan that will not only help the team integrate, bond and respect each other's working methods, working preferences and match their life habits, but also increase their motivation to work, their critical thinking and most importantly, their innovative thinking. As you are supported by the university, you can take into consideration asking for help from the university with your plan, especially from researchers and PhD students.

Topic 4: Different background of students Case: You are a teacher in the Mechanical Engineering Faculty, having a class in the last year of the bachelor's. In your class, there are three students from different countries that will attend your subject for the whole year. In the first class, you noticed some differences in their background on the subject: one of them lacks some basic mathematical notions, one of them already studied half of the curriculum of the subject in a previous year and the last one of them had never used the online tools the laboratory uses, because they are not taught in his local university. The other students also noticed and are reserved to include them in the group projects. Because of this, the three international students lose their motivation for the class.

Instructions: As the teacher of the class, you have to make sure that all students receive the same level of education, meet the objectives of the study plan and learn the subject properly. You have to come up with a plan to speed up the process, so you don't lose the interest of the students, but at the same time satisfy everyone and make sure they collaborate with each other and include the new students in the groups for projects.

Outcomes The solutions presented by the team which tackled the first topic (Eastern vs Western universities) provided the following answers: 1. Implementation of a mentoring system for foreign students

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2. Materials and demonstrations in different languages 3. Sharing sessions between students that did well in their previous academic year and students that are from the same year as them or younger 4. Social activities 5. Psychologists for consultation and therapy 6. Additional classes for students to catch up to lessons or polish their skills further 7. Survival meetings and booklets for new students From the solutions to this case provided by the participants, it is clear that both the university and the students present in the university are able to lend a hand in solving issues like the one mentioned above, as they play a key part in integrating foreign students in their environment.

The solutions presented by the team which tackled the second topic (Mental health) were divided into two parts: prevention before the issues occur and aid when the problem has already occurred and hasn’t been noticed on time.

Solutions for prevention: 1. Welcome group for new students, to make them feel accepted 2. Online connections with locals before they begin their studies, so they get to know their surroundings beforehand 3. Social activities (i.e. movie night, theaters, group study sessions) in order to include the new students and make them feel at home Solutions in case the problem isn’t noticed on time: 1. Group sessions to share their feelings and what they are going through, together with the colleagues that go through similar problems 2. Making a connection network for students from the same country 3. Blog therapy, a method which allows the students affected to share their problems online and anonymously in order to get help from others 4. Having a professional therapist on hand in the university 5. A 24/7 hotline where students can talk to others when they’re feeling unwell, in the case of them not being comfortable sharing their problems online or face-to-face with others Based off of the answers given by the participants, there is a clear line between things that can be done to prevent issues like the one mentioned in the case specified above from arising. Proper prevention and treatment for people suffering from issues like those mentioned can benefit both the person who is struggling and those around them. It is both a task of the university and the students to properly spot these problems on time and to prevent them from developing by providing proper support and company to those affected.

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The solutions presented by the team which tackled the third case (Innovation and innovative thinking) were as written below: The group began by making a SWOT analysis of the problem in order to identify the main issues and benefits of working in such an environment and in such conditions.

The SWOT analysis was as follows: Strengths

Weaknesses

Various backgrounds, which results in

The collaborators work at a distance,

various perspectives

which results in communication issues

Different approaches

Different time zones

Various fields between the collaborators

Possible exclusion Distance between them results in lack of face-to-face meetings

Opportunities

Threats

Wide range of professors and equipment

Lack of funding for travelling

Wide range of people they can ask for advice Table 8. SWOT analysis for Innovation and Innovative thinking case

The solutions for the weaknesses and threats were drawn from the strengths and opportunities and they are listed below: 1. Online meetings for long-distance communication, which would happen on Saturdays, as that day is mostly free for everyone a. Those online meetings would use finger rules in order to stay on track with their schedule b. To track their work and progress, they would utilize Slack. Their Slack channel would consist of channels for different technicalities, management and a separate channel for fun and jokes c. Their meetings would require mandatory feedback and time off, where they can talk about things unrelated to the project 2. For personal meetings, a location which is accessible to everyone would be chosen, for optimal flight prices and timing.

3. To fund the project in the later stages, they would acquire funds from grants or the universities they work for and from companies too 4. The collaborators should constantly motivate each other 5. The collaborators should have predefined working methods in order to be efficient and effective 6. The collaborators should rely on their diversity, as they could obtain valuable solutions from the different points of view

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The main outcome of these solutions is that all situations have negative aspects, both external and internal, which can be solved by proper analysis of the whole situation and locating the positive aspects. By properly using those positive sides to their fullest potential, the impact of the negative sides can be almost fully minimized and even completely subsided. The impact that cultural diversity has is immense, and proper utilization of it is key in order to overcome those problems.

The participants which tackled the fourth case (Students from different backgrounds) tackled the problem by first analyzing the problem at hand in order to identify any other possible issues. The issues that were found were the following: not everyone is on the same page and to improve the mixture of people while working.

The solutions were as follows: 1. Instead of allowing people to work with others of the same background from the very beginning, the first week should be an orientational week, where the students get acquainted with everything, albeit their presence would not be mandatory.

2. In order to get students on the same page with their studies, students who are more proficient at some subjects can help those who aren’t as proficient as them and gain some extra credits in return. a. Those students who do better can also request more complex topics and problems to solve from their professors, furthering their progress.

3. When it comes down to laboratories, students who aren’t acquainted with the technology used can attend laboratory lessons from other groups as observers in order to grasp the methodology used in the laboratory and to see how the utensils are properly utilized.

4. Adding additional consultation hours with professors in order to ask for assistance with certain areas where the students struggle 5. Adding more working time during lessons and constantly mixing up the pairings in order for students to get accustomed to their peers and their working habits 6. Having professors deliver motivational speeches 7. Having a method of sharing materials between students The main outcome which can be drawn from these solutions is that the proper assessment of the needs and capabilities of the student body is a key factor which can improve the quality of their student lives. By adding various solutions which involve both the university and the students lending a hand to those who feel or are underprepared, both parties can benefit by developing more capable, qualified and confident students for the future.

To conclude, it is evident that to every problem there is a solution which can be found by properly assessing and analyzing both the problem at hand and the parties involved in order to draw out the strengths which the parties possess. With that knowledge in mind, it is possible to downscale or fully neutralize the negative impact of the problem at hand, whilst developing the parties involved.

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Sustainable development of cultural diversity Facilitators: Lourenço Steel Hart, Răsvan Manea

Background The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations in 2015 for the year 2030. They cover all the areas of humanity and are interconnected so that by 2030 the entire world will become better. Needless to say that education and culture are also included in the SDGs and students and the youth in general plays an important role in achieving these goals.

Therefore, the purpose of this session was to promote Sustainable Development Goals and see how students and universities can help out in order to achieve the goals related to education and culture.

Methodology From all the 17 global goals, four goals were chosen because their subgoals were connected to education, culture or diversity. These four goals were: goal nr. 4: Quality education, goal nr. 8: Decent work and economic growth, goal nr. 10: Reduced inequalities and goal nr. 11: Sustainable cities and communities.

The participants were then divided into 4 groups, where they were able to discuss the role that students and universities should have, in order to achieve these goals. Each group got a specific goal do discuss.

Outcomes Main outcomes by goal: Goal 4 - Quality education Main outcomes: - students should participate in events that tackle this issue-> sustainable development and universities should encourage them to apply by giving rewards - students should make self-organised groups to promote a sustainable lifestyle and universities should provide educational lessons for the students to reach a sustainable lifestyle - for gender equality, universities could offer an equal salary for both male/female professors, to set the example

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Goal 8 - Decent work and economic growth Main outcomes: - Entrepreneurship: - company incubators to help students create their own businesses - administrative/business help because there is a lot of bureaucracy that demotivate students - investment simulation to make students understand how the world of business works - innovation competitions to show students what it is like to open a business - voluntary internships for experience (job finding services) - Tourism: - summer junior courses - international or national NGOs exchange programmes - Organising cultural or touristic activities for local students in their own cities Goal 10 - Reduced inequalities Main outcomes: - Migration: - offer scholarships for studying or working abroad - partnerships with other universities for research positions - get companies to offer jobs to foreigners - help and provide information about the documents and bureaucracy related things - Inclusion: - organising ethnicity weeks, where foreigners show their culture and they can feel proud about it - recognise the studies and diplomas from their home country universities - offer study opportunities - language informal meetings to learn and feel comfortable - share a personal experience so their problems are heard and noticed Goal 11 - Sustainable cities and communities Main outcomes: - visiting natural/cultural heritage through university programmes - encourage people to apply to international events - promotion of ideas/ support - agreement with city authorities - social events made by university associations in which heritage is promoted

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- free entrance at heritages for students from all countries - knowledge fairs with latest innovations and advertisement - universities should be an example for the city itself

Cultural diversity in the workplace Facilitators: Zhivko Serafimoski, Lourenรงo Steel Hart

Background As the time to graduate from university draws nearer, students begin to think about a very important part of their lives - their future. More specifically, employment. Where one works and spends most of his days depends on where one has studied. If perhaps the environment in which one student has studied lacks a culturally diverse environment, that student may be incompatible to work in such an environment. Hence, the main goal of this session is to explore the possible benefits and drawbacks cultural diversity has on the future of students.

Methodology The session began with an explanation of what a SWOT analysis is. Once that was done, the participants were divided into two groups. One group tackled the strengths of working in a culturally diverse environment, whereas the other group tackled the weaknesses of working in such an environment. Once the strengths and weaknesses were drawn out by the participants, they were presented and a discussion was held about them. Later, the participants were split into two groups once more, one tackling the opportunities of working in a culturally diverse environment, whereas the other tackled the threats of working in such an environment. Much like before, once the opportunities and threats were drawn out, they were presented and discussed upon. Afterwards, the participants were asked to tackle either a weakness or a threat by using the strengths or opportunities provided by them.

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Outcomes Strengths

Weaknesses

variety of different opinions

language barrier

tolerance

different mentality

the project/work is objective

different schedules

raising awareness of other cultures

different schedules because of religion

breaking stereotypes

different routines

spreading the impact

different working methods which lead to

sharing work methods

difficulties because not everyone is used

increased efficiency

to them

broadening knowledge

different university systems which aren’t standardized different backgrounds types of humour attitude towards deadlines - for some people they are absolute, some people take care of them the night before attitude towards schedules - people being late vs on time time incompatibility different perspectives on gender equality in some cultures different income due to being from a different background

Opportunities

Threats

increase efficiency from different

cultural tension

methods

migration policies

increase the network across the countries

biased funding

market trends

pushed out by local companies

increase travelling opportunities

discrimination from outside

worldwide connections

perception of the company due to

self-improvement (language, courses,

employment

etc.) continuous working hours Table 10. SWOT analysis of working in a culturally diverse environment

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With the discussion, it was concluded that working in culturally different environments has more drawbacks than benefits, but most of the weaknesses could easily be tackled by implementing the strengths noted above.

After the results were presented, a small discussion was held some of the weaknesses, analyzing them further.

The main outcome which can be drawn from this segment of the session is that the workplace is heavily influenced by cultural diversity and in more ways than one.

Moving on, the participants were asked to tackle weaknesses and threats by using some of the strengths and opportunities they themselves mentioned. With this, the impact of proper analysis and assessment of the situations is shown to have a big effect on solving the problems, as the participants implemented many of the strengths and opportunities to nullify the threats and weaknesses.

To conclude the session, the participants were asked whether a multicultural environment could prepare them for their future workplace. The majority agreed that studying in such an environment could benefit them in the future.

Parking Lot Facilitators: Silvia Marogel, Lourenรงo Steel Hart

Background During the event, participants pointed out topics that they would have liked to discuss more about.

They submitted their ideas after sessions, and in the end, the Content Team evaluated the ideas and they chose two topics that were most interesting for them.

The topics selected were: Differences between eastern and western European universities Mentality of students that go to study abroad for a full cycle versus those that go for a short period in an exchange programme

Methodology The session was an open discussion, led by the facilitators.

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Outcomes The differences between eastern and western European universities identified are: - Finances - Western languages are more common than eastern languages - Western universities provide classes in English, while eastern countries lack the usage of English overall - Western universities help students gain soft skills through the teaching methods and classes, while eastern universities are more focused on technical knowledge - The history of eastern countries affected education, while in the western countries education has always been a priority The identified differences between students that go to study abroad for a full cycle and students that go for a short period in an exchange programme are: - Students that go abroad for a full programme usually aim to move and live there - It is more convenient money-wise to go abroad with an exchange programme - After an exchange programme, it is possible not to have equivalences for all the subjects and students need to retake some subjects in the following year - Most universities tend to let exchange students pass easier than the local students - Students that go in exchange programmes are more focused on the cultural exchange and social activities, rather than on studying - Students that go for a full cycle have more initiative to integrate with locals - The motivation of some students to go on exchange programmes comes from the ease to pass subjects

Project Facilitators: Content Team

Background Throughout the entire event, all the sessions were designed so that the outcomes would refer mostly to what universities should do in order to better sustain cultural diversity in STEM Education. However, in order for every participant to have something more “tangible� that they can try to apply in their university, it was decided to have a set of sessions that allow them to discuss and come up with an implementation plan for a specific group ideia. This is how the project was created, to bring specific and applicable ideas into the discussion so that everyone will be able to take something from it and get involved in the improvement of the education system in their own universities.

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Methodology The project spread along 3 practice sessions of 1 hour, another 2 hours session to finalise the project and then the final presentation. The project referred to ideas that could either solve a cultural diversity issue or strengthen good initiatives that already exist in this sense, from a university.

Participants were divided into teams and they had to decide which university they want to work on.

This could be one of their universities or an imaginary one, but with some real data regarding them, since the ideas should be as specific and applicable as possible.

Furthermore, in practice session number 2 and 3, the teams had been given some targets that their ideas should reach, targets that were consistent with the topic of each day. In practice session number 2, the target was that their idea should reach both students and professors and in practice session number 3, they were told that their idea should impact not only the environment inside the university, but also the outside community.

For the final presentation, the participants were asked to elaborate on: - Which university they were working on and what problems they specifically tackled, - How their idea supports the chosen cause, - The steps that should be taken to implement the idea, - The impact of their ideas on students, professors and the outside community.

Outcomes Each team came up with their own unique idea and since all of them are quite different, they will all be explained: Team 1: Sustainable car design competition - 30 international and local students working in teams for a semester - Each team has a supervisor professor - A 3 days camp at the end of the semester to finalise the project and present it - Social and cultural activities in the camp with students, professors and local companies representatives By working together in mixed teams for a whole semester, it is expected that students will gain academic experience. Also, the professors will gain experience in working with international students since the team will be culturally diverse.

All parties involved (students, professors and company representatives) will take part in a big cultural exchange during the camp.

Last but not least, it will raise awareness on sustainable development and possible funding opportunities may appear for the university.

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Team 2: Advisory office - Promote the university (facilities, atmosphere, equipment, etc.) to international students and ethnical/national/regional minorities - Give advice and guidance in: career opportunities, adaptation to different cultures, exchanges, academic life(materials mainly) - Provide information about: extracurricular activities, local events, NGOs etc.

- Improve education quality by connecting university professors and high school teachers in order to share and discuss teaching methods This idea will require some financial and human resources in order to work as planned. But it will be a very accessible support for all students where they will find a safe place to share their needs and problems and also where to find more information about the university.

As for professors, it will become an opportunity to promote academic information to students and to other professors, it will bring them closer to the high school teachers in order to improve the teaching methods.

The local community will also have something to gain from it since students from minorities are a priority of the project. Also by encouraging international students to join the university, more diversity will be introduced to the local society.

Team 3: University of Novi Sad promotion The team discovered that the University of Novi Sad has very good programmes and facilities for international students, but because of the prestige of the country, the Europeans perspectives on Serbia and the lack of an international local language, the University has very few international students.

- More promotion on the social media channels, for the website, the few international students from there can spread the word and also in conferences with EU and non-EU universities - Better prepare professors by rewarding those that teach to international students and by having obligatory Erasmus exchange for professors By doing these, the local students will get to know more about the benefits of having foreign classmates and they will want to integrate them. Professors will be more engaged and motivated to teach better and more international students will come into the city.

Team 4: Make STEM masters available in English throughout the EU The aim of the goal is to increase the accessibility of masters programmes in the EU for international students.

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The project is thought to be finalised by 2030, by following three 5 years stages: - 2020-2025 Infrastructure - Make English certification exams ( eg IELTS, Cambridge, etc) free in universities - Organise exchange programmes for lecturers - 2025-2030 Implementation - Every textbook in English - English exam obligatory for masters - 2030-2035 Optimisation - Lectures in English - Every STEM masters available in English The participants admitted that the schedule is a bit optimistic, but they were keen that this initiative should soon start with both students and universities starting the plan.

Team 5: Inclusion of foreign students at the Czech Technical University of Prague - Have mandatory ECTS in English for students that want to join this University - The university should provide English lessons for free for professors, so their language skills are good - Classes and materials available in English - Free but mandatory English classes for students - Professors with international teaching experience - Have a cultural written guide for foreign students - Students representatives should organise cultural events - Create a position called animators, to encourage students to get involved between international and local students By doing all these, the students will have better language skills and the opportunity to practice it. They will do a cultural exchange with international students which will make them more tolerant and it will make them learn more working methods.

Professors will improve their teaching skills and will get to know more about the research being done abroad. The community will gain more international people that bring more diversity and even economical benefits.

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