The faculty's Department of International Relations comprehensively and traditionally
ensures not only international mobilities and arrivals of students and teachers
within the framework of foreign cooperation programs – Erasmus + and CEEPUS,
and significantly participates in establishing new international contacts and
partnerships, but also participates in the implementation of selected projects
aimed at development and support of internationalization of the university.
During the
summer semester 2020/2021 we did not lag behind and:
- Regarding
students, we were happy to support the individual study of a Turkish student
from Cankiri Karatekin University within the study program Public
Administration and Social Policy.
- We were
very pleased with the interest of our students in study stays abroad, when
almost two dozen applicants applied for the selection procedure for the next
academic year 2021/2022, which is not small in the proportion of students at
the faculty.
- In order
to motivate our students more to gain foreign experience, we established new
cooperation with Czech schools around Daruvar in Croatia and almost immediately
registered a great interest of students in two-week internships that we offer
in this locality and which will be implemented next semester.
As part of
the arrivals of teachers and experts at our faculty, we recorded more than 20
visits and hosting during the month of June, and we select some facts:
- Traditionally, most of the incomings were Slovak and Polish fellow academics, who
already know our background in Opava and have positive collegial relations
especially with members of the Institute of Public Administration and Social
Policy, participate in joint project work and publishing activities and are
always accompanied by friendly meetings and professional discussions.
- At our
faculty, we welcomed dr. Cíbik, doc.
Horváth and dr. Švikruha from the
Slovak University of St. Cyril and
Methodius in Trnava (Univerzita sv. Cyrila a Metoda v Trnave), dr. Curyło
and dr. Czepil from the Polish University of Opole (Uniwersytet Opolski)
visited us as well, and we also accepted dr.
Podgórska-Rykala and dr. Kępa
from the University of Pedagogy in Krakow
(Uniwersytet Pedagogiczny w
Krakowie).
In addition
to the pedagogically tuned Erasmus mobilities, we have accepted five other
foreign experts at the faculty as part of international cooperation projects.
For example, two academics from Poland and one academic from Slovakia were
accepted for a two-week research internship within the project of the
Institutional Plan "Development of International Cooperation".
- Doc. Rapčíková from the Faculty of Health of the Slovak Medical
University in Bratislava deals especially with medical ethics and ethical
principles of helping professions, is always a nice and pleasant visit to the Institute
of Paramedical Health Studies.
- Prof. Głębocka d. Trawkowska from the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań,
Faculty of Sociology, Department of Research on Social Problems and Social Work,
was at our faculty for the first time and her interest is focused on the
functioning of non-profit and voluntary organizations at the border in terms of
social work and sociology.
- dr. Opioła from the University of Opole, Department of Political Science and Community
Communication, Institute of Political Science and Administration has been
cooperating for a long time on partial aspects of cross-border cooperation
within the field of social policy with dr. Vomlela.
And at the
very end of June, we were absolutely captivated by the nice visit of prof. Jo Ann R. Regan from The Catholic University of America,
Washington DC, this year's Fulbright Scholar for the Czech Republic, who
spoke very modestly with a lecture on "A
Comparison of Social Work Competencies and Standards in the Czech Republic and
the United States to Enhance Quality Social Work Education”. We asked Mrs.
dean to accept our invitation repeatedly and to visit us at the end of August.
Our thanks
go to all those who helped us make foreign visits and to all those who
participate in the international growth of our faculty and other activities!
For
Department of International Relations Kateřina Janků and Jana Bortlíková
Picture downloaded at https://unsplash.com/photos/IYm2PCy0f8c