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Aoife Dowling Visits Malmö University on Erasmus+ Staff Training
UNIC project manager Aoife Dowling visited UNIC partner Malmö University, Sweden, on 13-15 May for an Erasmus+ staff training visit.
Aoife was hosted by Maria Pihel and Anna Beran at the UNIC office. She got the opportunity to engage with Malmö colleagues across the university on a range of areas relevant to her work interests; primarily, UNIC co-operation, UNIC management, effective project-management in a university setting, arts and culture, cultural collaboration on campus, city engagement, university communications and shared research strengths.
Conversations included sharing ideas and knowledge about existing collaboration between Malmö University and University College Cork, as well as identifying areas for future co-operation. The two universities already work closely together through UNIC, including in the areas of City Engagement and Sustainability.
The visit also offered an opportunity to identify the shared university profiles; what the institutions share in common and how they differ. The two universities have a similar student population size (around 25,000 students).
Malmö University is the younger of the two institutions, having been founded in the 1990s and rooted in the city's industrial background, with a specialism for roles required for society: police work, social work, education, nursing and others. Malmö colleagues shared that one of the university's strengths is in enabling shared learning across disciplines. Societal engagement has been a major focus throughout.
The hosts also gave an evening city tour by bike, showcasing how the city has grown and developed through its medieval past, then industrial development, through to modern housing and avant-garde architecture (the tour took in Malmö Castle, the beautiful nineteenth-century bath house Ribersborgs kallbadhus, and the iconic 'turning torso' skyscraper). Like in Cork, the city's layers of history are visible in its fabric.
The visit served to offer training for Aoife in her own role but also unlocked deepened engagement and understanding between the two UNIC partners for ongoing partnership.