VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava
VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava was founded in 1849, and has since grown into a modern institution of higher learning, offering the highest levels of education in technical and economic branches of study, based on the interconnection of science, research, education, and the creative activity that binds and enhances them.
Ostrava has long been a hub of major industry in central Europe, and study and research at VŠB-TUO is informed by historically close ties with major international companies, as well as by joint research and mobility programmes with university partners the world over.
VŠB-TUO is the fourth largest university in the Czech Republic with over 20,000 students studying in bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs in seven faculties and two all-University study programmes. VŠB-TUO has more than 2,500 employees. In November 2011 VŠB-TUO was awarded the prestigious ECTS Label, a mark of the quality of implementation of the credit system in bachelor and master study programmes according to European standards. This label ensures that our administration of international students has undergone rigorous examination by an agency of the European Commission in order to receive this Label.
Our University cooperates with educational and research institutions worldwide. From joint research programmes with universities in the U.S., to cooperative degree and exchange programmes in Europe, Japan, China, and beyond, VŠB-TUO holds international education as a priority which diversifies and strengthens not only our student body but the University as a whole.
VŠB-TUO is a public institution of higher education which provides tertiary education in technical and economic sciences. We prepare graduates for the future in a rapidly changing world. Our commitment is to implement education programmes across different fields, using the research and development potential of the University. VŠB-TUO has more than one hundred accredited educational programmes.
Research and Development connected to education are integral to the activities at VŠB-TUO. Our focus on applied research and close cooperation with industry informs the teaching activities at the University, ensuring relevance in a dynamic international scientific environment. The fact that we are one of the most successful universities in the utilization of European structural funds focused on research is not a coincidence. We are utilizing our excellent position in six areas to develop science and research for the future through the Centre of Excellence IT for Innovations, and other top centres.
University of Bielsko-Biala
The University of Bielsko-Biala (Polish name: Akademia Techniczno-Humanistyczna w Bielsku-Białej) emerged as a result of transformation of the former Branch of the Technical University of Łódź (established in 1969) and in 2001 it became an independent academic center.
Currently, the educational offer not only covers the technical, environmental, economic, and social fields of knowledge, as well as the field of humanities and medical sciences; apart from that, the educational offer is being constantly enriched with directions and specialties in demand on the labor market.
The five faculties of the University of Bielsko-Biala:
- Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science
- Faculty of Materials, Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Faculty of Management and Transport
- Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
- Faculty of Health Sciences
offer studies in a total of 16 fields, including the courses of bachelor/engineering, as well as master’s and doctoral programs.
The number of dynamically operating scientific circles, clubs, and hobby-minding corners is being constantly enlarged; there is functioning an excellent choir, a student sports club and/or a sailing center; the student government is also becoming more and more visible in the everyday activity of the university life.
One of the priorities of the university is international cooperation. Our academics conduct joint research projects with scientists from many countries, deliver papers at international conferences, participate in numerous international internships and training events. Such openness to the educational markets in Europe and the world also results in an increase in the amount of foreign students studying in our University and the number of our students pursuing part of the curriculum in many universities abroad.
University of Iceland (UI) – School of Education
The University of Iceland (UI) is the leading institution of research and higher education in Iceland; it is a progressive educational and scientific institution, renowned for research in the global scientific community. The University of Iceland is a state university, situated in the heart of Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland. A modern, diversified, and rapidly developing institution, the UI offers opportunities for study and research in 400 programs, spanning most fields of science and scholarship. The UI is organized into five schools: Social Sciences, Health Sciences, Humanities, Education, Natural Sciences, and Engineering. About 14 thousand students are enrolled and around thirteen hundred staff and faculty are in its employ.
The School of Education at the UI, educates teachers for preschools, primary schools, and upper secondary schools, sports and health scenes, social educators, and leisure professionals. All academic programs at the School of Education are strongly linked to the workplaces of those professions the school educates, such as schools and other societal institutions. The programs provide a wide range of professional options, and serve as a good foundation for further studies. The School of Education is divided into three faculties: the faculty of Education Studies, the faculty of Teacher Education and the faculty of Sport, Leisure Studies and Social Education.
The School of Education is the principal institution in the fields of education and training in Iceland, and has around 1050 students enrolled in undergraduate programs, and an increasing number of master’s and doctoral students. In the year 2016, there were 84 doctoral students and 715 master’s students doing their graduate degree training at the School of Education, many from other European countries. The School of Education also hosts vibrant exchange student programs.
At the School of Education diverse research is carried out in the field of education, pedagogy and training for the purpose of creating new knowledge for the benefit of society. The faculty at the School of Education comes from diverse scholarly and vocational disciplines, providing a truly interdisciplinary training and research in the field of education. As a result, research collaboration is common, both domestically and with researchers and teams in Europe. Emphasis is placed on a strong support service for teaching, studying and research, and the support service alone employs about 30 people.
The Educational Research Institute is an academic and research institute within the UI, housed in the school of Education. The Institute conducts research and provides advice and services within the aim of strengthening research in the field of education and related fields.
Twenty-one research centres belong to the School of Education, all of them fall under the Educational Research Institute. The School of Education, mostly through research enjoys close ties with the workplace, especially as it provides advice, empirical evidence, and guidelines for those interested in education, training, and skill acquisition.
The main role of the Educational Research Institute is to promote research and strengthen the research environment within the School of Education. The institute supports research units and individual researchers by providing assistance to researchers applying for research funding, both for domestic and foreign competitive research grants and for other funding. The institute also provides advice and assistance in the dissemination of research results, assistance in organizing research, and support to development projects within the School of Education. The aim is to promote research and seek to ensure that the structure and development of the Icelandic education sector is based on the best available knowledge at any given time.
