The Utrecht Network has established summer schools as a joint activity of the member universities. Students and teachers from the members come together for a short, intensive period of study. An academic committee composed by academics from different member universities organizes the content of the summer school. Often a multidisciplinary approach is used, giving an additional perspective to the student’s single discipline oriented study programme. The summer schools are not-for-profit.
Introduction
The Utrecht Network is a group of 31 universities from 27 European countries which have been cooperating since 1987 in the broad field of internationalization of higher education. All members are comprehensive universities. The network is active in student and staff exchanges, internationalization of the curricula, joint curricula, international projects, research management, and organization of summer schools. The network has successfully established student mobility with university consortia in the USA, Australia and Brazil.
Utrecht Network summer schools
The Utrecht Network summer schools are among the highlights of the member universities’ joint activities. The aim of the summer schools is to bring students and teachers from member universities and overseas partners together during an intensive study period. Additional students are recruited worldwide. This makes it a truly international experience.
Organizing an Utrecht Network summer school is a perfect means to establish closer academic cooperation with member institutions on a given topic. Offshoots are often joint research, joint publications, creation of joint degrees, etc. A summer school is also an effective way to market the host institution to a wider audience.
Definition
An Utrecht Network summer school meets a demand and complies with the following principles:
• An academic committee organizes and monitors the content and the quality of the school
• The majority of institutions represented in the academic committee belong to the Utrecht Network
• The majority of participants (students and/or doctoral candidates) belong to the Utrecht Network and partner institutions, including the local university (but not exclusively)
• The summer school is not-for-profit.
The organization of a summer school is the responsibility of the local university. The Utrecht Network supports the promotion and recruitment of students and teachers within the network, through the Utrecht Network website, newsletter and email campaigns.
Financial support
The Utrecht Network supports the summer school financially for the first three years. To cover organizational costs, an amount of €15,000/year is usually granted for a 2-week summer school (depending on duration).
Summer schools can also apply for the status of an Utrecht Network summer school without receiving funding from the Network. The same conditions apply.
Utrecht Network students participating in a funded or non-funded summer school may receive an individual Summer School Grant. A maximum of three summer schools per year can allocate up to 31 grants of €250. The academic committee decides on the allocation: one student per institution, based on performance and other reasons applicable to the school. If no students from a specific member institution apply, the unused grant can be used for students from other member universities ranked lower than first. The home institution is consulted.
Summer Schools Task Force
The Utrecht Network has established a Summer Schools Task Force to guide the organization of the summer school and the selection process. The role of the Task Force is to:
• Encourage member institutions to propose ideas for Utrecht Network Summer Schools
• Assess applications for new schools, check the conditions on site, and recommend schools to the Steering Committee
• Advise local organizers on general principles of organizing a school with Utrecht Network support
• Assess funding requests for schools and recommend schools to the Steering Committee
• Help advertise schools for recruitment
• Help advertise the Utrecht Network during the school
• Draw conclusions from the evaluations of schools
• Contribute to projects dealing with summer schools as a means of internationalization
Guidelines have been developed to help local organizers with planning and development.
Outcomes
The 1st Utrecht Network Summer School was organized in 2002 and was coordinated by the University of Bologna, Italy. The overall theme was Human Rights, since it was of general interest, appealing to a wide array of students and teachers. The topic includes many facets and can be approached from different angles. The summer school ran successfully until 2016 and dealt with topics such as globalization & multiculturalism, image of the other, communities vs individuals, democracy & civil society, minorities & participation, migration, old and new Europe, liberty-equality-fraternity, antislavery & human trafficking.
Teaching staff came from various disciplines, such as sociology, anthropology, law, political sciences, history, economics, philosophy, etc. and represented a good sample of European expertise from different Utrecht Network member universities. The study body was also very diverse. The multidisciplinary approach made the summer school a success, offering a different perspective and additional knowledge to the student’s single discipline oriented study programme. The theme was dealt with from a theoretical point of view but also with interaction, case studies and voices of the local communities involved. All schools were set up as residential stays, allowing for maximum interaction between students and teachers.
The school was first held in Italy but later travelled to other Utrecht Network member universities connected to the expertise available and the local context, enriching the topic of that year.
Each local university was responsible for the logistics. The international offices of the Utrecht Network member universities played a pivotal role by spreading information and collecting and selecting applications from students and staff.
Students paid a small fee to cover the costs of their stay, while teachers were reimbursed for their costs of travel and stay but participated for free.
Other summer schools were held on the following topics:
• Environmental Resources Management (2003-2007)
• The Americas (2008-2012)
• Chemistry: Spectroscopy (2009-2011)
• Historical book collections: ‘Hidden Libraries’ (2014 & 2018)
• Professional English for academics (2014-2016)
• Data, information and communication (2018)
• Story-telling promoting civic and social engagement (2018)
The Utrecht Network summer schools were held in locations in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Slovenia and Spain.
http://www.utrecht-network.org/activities/summer-school/ http://www.utrecht-network.org/activities/hosting-summer-school/