Platon meets Weber. Academic Newsletter, Ed. 1, May 2015

Academic

Plato meets Weber

Newsletter Edition 1 / May 2015

Newsletter for the academic network between TEI Crete and OTH Regensburg

“ The direction in

Welcome

which education starts a man, will determine his future in life.”

-Plato

We are glad to introduce you to the “Global Academic Network Newsletter”, a platform that is inspired by a successful collaboration between TEI of Crete and OTH Regensburg, and focuses on current activities and future highlights through the educational engagement of both communities.

EDITORS :

Leading to an unknown future as far as concerned economical, social and political changes, the only known fact is that education can provide the foundation for us all, to increase prosperity and ensure long-term security.

Dr. George Xanthos

The scientific world can support and promote a healthier relationship between countries, since the positive outcome of the collaboration motivates everyone involved.

Prof. Dr. Markus Bresinsky

The common effort of TEI Crete and OTH Regensburg on the creation of this network aims to the best interest of this Union, on helping and developing each other the best way possible as far as concerned our academic interests and goals.

Index: Episteme

1

Introduction

2

Insight to TEI Crete

2

Insight to OTH Regensburg

2

Summer school 2014

3

Internship exchange

3

.dot

4

Benefits of participation

4

Collaborative exercises

4

GreekGerman Relation

5

G-G in current crisis

5

European Union info

5

Quotes by Editors

6

Professors in exchange

6

Imprint/disclaimer

7

Episteme “Energy, Europe and Security” Following the call announced and sponsored by German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), OTH Regensburg and TEI of Crete introduce Episteme, a project that contains a trio of the thematic topics: “Energy, Europe and Security”. Used as a foundation to deepen the existing partnership, there will be an excange of professional expertise and knowledge through lectures on various subjects, as well as collaboration in research and analysis, which will gradually lead to an innovative way of thinking and better understanding of intercultural differences between German and Greeks.

*Plato : c. 428-347 B.C., the eminent Greek Philosopher *Max Weber : c. 1864-1920 A.D., influental german sociologist and political economist

Plato meets Weber "All knowledge of cultural reality, as may be seen, is always knowledge from particular points of view.”

-Max Weber

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Opening new horizons : The main goal behind this bilateral collaboration

“When high-level education and knowledge expertise along with intercultural academic relations are combined, the outcome is innovative thinking. By supporting international student enrolement in both Institutes, the possibilities of an upgraded product are rising high, since a team with different perception on various subjects, leads to a different and better approach of them. The current and future newsletters will be the insight on the progress we made through our connection, along with projects that took place succesfully, as well as interesting news from our academic communities..”

Maria Aeraki Florian Reusner undergraduate student assistants from TEI Crete, OTH Regensburg

TEI Crete TEI of Crete was established in 1983, as a technological Institute of applied sciences, and until this day it includes undergraduate and postgraduate studies in fields such as Informatics, Engineering, Economics, Health, Agriculture and Enviroment. The institute headquarter is in Heraklion, with annexes in Chania, Rethimno and ranks high among its peers, with huge contribution to the development of the island. According to the Hellenic Quality Assurance and Accredation Agency, the Institute offers high quality education, along with numerous job opportunities after the studies are processed, both on private and public sector. The collaboration of TEI with more than 120 Europian Academic Institutes, strengthens the excange between Educational Systems and intercultural collaboration both on students and professors.

For more info: https://www.teicrete.gr/en

OTH Regensburg OTH Regensburg was founded in 1971 as a college of engineering, business studies and social services. Today it is one of the largest universities of applied sciences in Bavaria with its approx. 10500 students.OTH Regensburg is being represented as an engine for the region’s innovative power and future growth. As a partner of regional business, it offers courses and research activities of truly practical relevance. Dual programs with integrated workplace training and postgraduate scientific programs ensure that academic studies interface seamlessly with business practice. Applied research ensures the transfer of new scientific knowledge to business. The resulting interdisciplinary and varied choice of courses is backed up by a wide range of supplementary studies and elective options which convey contextual knowledge and intercultural skills.

For more info : https://www.oth-regensburg.de/en.html

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Plato meets Weber

Summer School 2014 First Summer University took place with aprox. 20 German and 20 Greek students : 

TEI Crete: 28th July – 3rd August 2014



OTH Regensburg: 11th August – 16th August 2014

Topics: Energy, Cretan diet, Tourism, History, Risk Management, Security, Europe, Intercultural Training, Application Training

Summer school courses contain a variety of different topics, nevertheless it’s mainly focused on renewable energy issues and applications, as far as concerned the technical understanding and economic utility of them. It is also focused on Intercultural Training, for better understanding of the cultural differences of the participants involved. As for the entertainment, professors and students, of both sides were more than glad to inform and accompany the students on post lecture activities, introducing the culture and tradition of each region to the visitors. The internship, set the foundation for students to consider about the oppurtinities given as far as concerned their studies abroad, and contributed to the development of each community.

International classroom, in Knossos Palace, Crete.

Episteme Supports Greek interns in Regensburg The DAAD project, not only encourages the collaboration between the Institutes, it also provides plenty of opportunities for the students. It offers annually internship for three students from TEI, in order to live and work for one semester in Germany. The participants receive a private course, so they can strengthen their knowledge on German language, it will also be helpful in case they want to continue their career in Germany.

Since November 2014, two internship positions have already been provided to Elena Toumasatou, and Vilia Belandaki, both pursuing a bachelors

degree in health care in Heraklion. We contacted them, and their impression of the “German way of life” couldn’t be any better: “Compared to Athens, life in Regensburg, seems to be more peaceful and relaxed..” , says Elena.

As for the future, after they receive their bachelors degree they can both imagine theirselves working in a hospital in Germany, while they are extending their knowledge on their field by a master degree in Health care. By the experience they gained through the DAAD project, it’s not going to be a great challenge for them. Harris Polichronakis and

George Chalampalakis two students of TEI Crete who also participated in the summer school, will start their internship in Regensburg this April, while Florian Reusner a german student of International Relations & Management is pursuing his internship in Crete for the current semester, both supporting further the collaboration.

Plato meets Weber

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play, than in a year of conversation.”

- Plato

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.dot exercise .dot , is a platform that offers multinational collaboration on virtual exercises. The exercise is designed, developed and carried out by students of senior class of the study programm IRM of OTH Regensburg , under the supervision of Prof.

Dr. Bresinsky. Participants are enroled in a fictional scenario as members of organisations, trying to find solutions to a problem while unexpected events are taking place and require immidiate action.The first .dot exe, took place in Feb.2014 and revolved around

the issue of water shortage in Irak. The second exe. took place in Feb.2015, with aprox.

40 students from five different nations, University of Glascow as well as Prague, German Jordanian University of Amman, TEI of Heraklion, and OTH Regensburg and revolved a flood occurred around lake Victoria in Kenya.

After the task is completed, there is an evaluation of the efford from external experts experienced in the fields that students enrole. There is also a database which gives useful

The future is global

information about stress levels, contribution, and strategies of the participants. The project manager of the Joint Effort 2015, Johannes Korber, was delighted by the performance of the team : ”It is a difficult task to consolidate, but within the Joint Effort, we were able to see how the right way of using individual capacity will lead to a good performance..”.

Next year another .dot exe will be offered, providing students the change, to work on a multinational team once more with a new creative topic.

Benefits of participation on a virtual game The players will have the opportunity to experience the difficulties behind a multinational collaboration, get a feedback about their “product” from experts, receive a certificate for their participation, and get an virtual insight of events, from a real life circumstances situation. “We as participants, experienced the benefits of a virtual multicultural / multinational collaboration at maximum.. Although we came across many challenges such as coordinating and ranking roles, the experience we gained in return was priceless! “

collaborative exercises CIMIC Experiences like Common Effort (2011) - The concept of cooperation between civilian & military partners is the most promising approach to dealing with contemporary crisis. We believe cooperation should start before we meet abroad in a crisis and should include all elements of mission preparation, including common exercises and training. Therefore, representatives from National and International Organizations military as well civil actors like the Red

Cross and the OTH Regensburg are working together on ways how to improve the cooperation on the operational, tactical and practical level and to train and operationalise the Comprehensive Approach. Exercise the cooperation and procedures between CIMIC and its civil partners within a natural disaster scenario.

Provide a training environment for military and civil players to exercise assessment, information management and work with media.

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Plato meets Weber

Greek German Relations Ever since Otto, the Bavarian prince and the first King of Greece (1832 – 1862), the Germans and the Greeks have had a very special relationship. It survived two world wars and was able to recover in the postwar period. On both sides great efforts were made to strengthen the relationship and yet it was always characterized by a latent ambivalence. However, with the onset of the financial crisis in Greece, the

Greek-German relationship deteriorated progressively. According to the media, the relashionship between two countries, was deteriorated rapidly. But through experiences like the summer school and exchange internships we can get a very personal impression of the GermanGreek relations, one very different from the media image. We are realistic and reflective with regard to the situation of our countries. In the cooperation of the

OTH Regensburg and TEI Crete - we see how alive the German-Greek relations are. There are many people who make a small contribution to the improvement of the international understanding between our two countries every day.

Greek German Relations in current EU Crisis Despite current difficult times - relations still shine bright.

Yet many guest workers prove the importance of the relation. Transfer of workforce and education always plaid a crucial role – with the implementation of the german social law into the greek system. As well as the lively cooperation in fields of engineering and philosophy. European based opinion is still founded on the same principles and is strengthend through renewing the 2012 founded Greek-GermanPartnership (DPG), many economic agreements and intense academic commitments through the DAAD and Erasmus programs – like the Episteme. These cultural and economic relations help to connect people and overcome prejudices and current issues of the international crisis. Greece and Germany have a lot of common opportunities for growth and comparative advantage. One need only consider its development potencial for solar and wind power, or the beauty of the greek landscape that already enchants so many tourists. Greece and Germany collaborate in economic, political, social and scientific fields closely and strengthen this with renewed partnership agreements.

European Union : Info After World War II, a union between states of Europe was necessary to prevent ST another devastation of the continent. Founded on 1 of November 1993, EU represents the political, economical, and social union of 28 member states, including Greece and Germany. EU policies, aim to ensure the free movement of people, products, capital and services, enact legislation on justice and home affairs and maintain common policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries and regional development.

Quotes

Wait for more : Stay in touch – a lot more will follow!

“After a year of close cooperation and collaboration within the project EPISTEME one can say that German Greek relations both between staff and students of both participating institutions are deepend. From an OTH Regensburg point of view we not only succeeded in establishing the project in cooperation with TEI Crete. We also had a lot of lessons identified and learnt by implementing the project in our institutional context. Cultural specialities of German bureaucracy and requirements of internal marketing made up a perfect study for a political scientist like me.

Uncertainty and ambiguity in the application process and building a new cooperation with new international partner was ambitious, but nevertheless, fruitful and terrific experience for me and my team. If one would ask me what I am looking forward to, is the upcoming summer university in TEI Crete and a jump into gear of our research ideas..”

Prof. Dr. Markus Bresinsky Editor

„The newsletter entitled Plato meets Weber is the outcome of a coincidence. Firstly I was a bit involved in EPISTEME project, and secondly I met Prof. Dr. Bresinsky. Since then we’re creating bridges among political science, regional economics and intercultural issues. I expect a deeper collaboration and I am looking forward to apply our research ideas..“ Assistant Prof. Dr. George Xanthos Editor

*The coordinator between TEI-OTH collaboration for the summer school was Dr. Gareth Alun Owens, Associate Director of International Relations Office of TEI. There was a huge contribution by a lot of professors, who were more than glad to give lectures, or support to the project in any way possible both from OTH Regensburg and TEI Crete : Dr Apostolakis, Dr. Groll, Dr. Karapidakis, Dr. Diamantidis, Dr. Dreyer, Dr. Bresinsky, Dr. Apladas, Dr Schroll-Decker, Dr. Psilaki, Dr. Makraki, Dr. Mavromatakis, Ms dipl. DePonte , Ms dipl. Fillenberg, Ms Burgemeister and Ms Vega.

Assistant Prof. Dr. George Xanthos

Prof. Dr. Markus Bresinsky

Tel: 2810379603 E-Mail: xanthosg@ret.forthnet.gr

Tel: 0941-943-9818 E-Mail: markus.bresinsky@oth-regensburg.de

P.O. Box 1939, Estavromenos 71004 Heraklion, Crete Greece

Prüfeninger Straße 58 93049 Regensburg Germany

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