JEAN MONNET CHAIR IN EU POLICIES

Achievements > Impact, visibility and dissemination

 The activities of the chair definitely contributed to improving and strengthening knowledge on European integration, a better understanding of EU policies and the role of EU transfers in regional development efforts.

The Chair renewed and revitalized the activities in the field of European integration studies carried out at the Corvinus University. The students have got such a background knowledge which could contribute to their personal development. The education in the field of European integration studies was strengthened and specific ways of specialisation were created, namely: focus on the future challenges and implications of new frameworks of European economic governance and impacts of EU regional policy transfers with a special emphasis on the experiences in the Visegrad Countries.

The activities (courses, "EU Policy Talks" series, study visits, workshops, roundtable discussions, publications) contributed to stimulating debate on the future of European integration. One of the most important results is to encourage debates. Wider audience benefited from the workshops and round table discussions. During the implementation of different activities we focused on maintaining and improving the excellent quality of teaching and debating activities on European integration issues. Our main goal was to give a well-based knowledge and openness for debating and arguing activities.

Former teaching activities at Corvinus University were extended and strengthened with a special emphasis on 2 directions. (1) Having comprehensive courses for those students who are not specialised in European Studies (students from other faculties and disciplines). This goal was reached by a BA level course on European integration for about 600 students annually, and by comprehensive courses for the students of the BA and MA programmes in International Relations (courses with 120-140 students annually). (2) Strengthening specific courses on European economic governance and the impact of EU level regional development policy transfers. These special courses were offered for MA, postgraduate and PhD students. This group of subjects has an added value from the point of view of understanding the role of EU level and national bodies in managing the economic and social changes during and after the international financial and economic crisis.

One of the main results of the teaching activities carried out within the framework of the Jean Monnet Chair is that 67 BA and MA theses were supervised by the professors of the Jean Monnet Chair and 11 doctoral theses were initiated in the field of European Studies.

Teaching activities were accompanied with very active debating activities that can improve dissemination of ideas and new approaches towards general public, civil society, practitioners, and academicians. The results achieved by professors (chair holder and the key staff members) and also by students have become more visible through workshops, round table discussions, conferences, and strengthened the outstanding role of Corvinus University in initiating open debates on actual and strategic questions of European integration. The networking activities with representatives of governmental organizations were encouraged: study visits were regularly organized.

Through the dissemination of teaching and research activities we used modern ICT tools, like internet platform, ppt draft of the lectures, background materials, and working papers available on-line. We created an open internet platform exclusively for the Jean Monnet Chair activities. At the same time "traditional" publications were also encouraged: new books and aricles were published by the chair holder and the participating professors.

The connected activities (workshops, round table discussions, study visits, conferences) initiated a comprehensive wide range debate among different groups. The students have become more active in debating activities, they had the opportunity to prepare their own research papers and present their results and exchange their main findings at annual workshops. The workshops, publications on internet platform, the study visits to governmental institutions strengthened students’ involvement in discussion on the future shape of governing European integration and the impact of EU membership. We can hope that these students will become the leading experts of European affairs at different national, regional and local organizations, entreprises and government and non-governmental bodies.

The Chair contributed to dissemination of general knowledge on European integration within and outside the University and to the understanding of present debates on the future of economic governance and cohesion policy. The dissemination did not restrict purely on regular university teaching activities (compulsory or optional courses), but the relevant background materials, the results of research activities and the main findings were disseminated through internet platforms ("virtual documentation centre" with basic documents, news, ppt draft of lectures), through open events, and through traditional ways of distribution of knowledge: by publishing books and articles. We had more than 600 media event participation (TV, radio, press interviews) about EU-related topics.

We are convinced that the high-level research activities at Corvinus University have become more visible for experts, scholars, civil organizations through our activities and deliverables, and through using internet platform. The Jean Monnet Chair in EU Policies created a long-term structure of courses and related activities after the lifetime of the project.