The November Meeting took place virtually again on November 15th and 16th. The Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences hosted it. After the welcome speeches by the IBSEN president Alessandro Spano, Vice President Armand van Oostrom, and the Dean of the BUAS Business Faculty Riza Öztürk, the meeting started by presenting IBSEN member universities current status and discussing the to-dos from the last May 2021 meeting. The Head of the BUAS Department of International Affairs, Judith Peltz, gave an excellent overview of the E+ Generation (2021-2027). She pointed out that one Erasmus program for the entire IBSEN network would be very complicated. Her suggestion was to work on a bilateral/ trilateral/ four// five lateral basis and include other members through workshops and publications. Furthermore, she signalized that ERASMUS projects need “high maintenance projects”, reports and bureaucracy and are usually not fully funded, so additional resources are required. She also introduced us to the new features regarding the “Next Generation E+”.

Finally, Judith Peltz announced the International Week that her department is organizing from 2-6 May next year.

Riza Öztürk presented the International Conference of the Business Faculty of BUAS called “Bielefeld International Conference on Applied Business (BIcab)“, which will take place on the last day of International Week 6 May 2022. Both events can therefore be combined very well.

Intensive work was done in two workshops over two days. In the IBSEN Summer Schools Workshop, the individual points that belong to a Summer School were discussed, and the basics were determined, such as the name, period, format and credits. The IBSEN Summer School is to be called “Go IBSEN School”. The IBSEN Summer School is to be held in rotation by all member universities. The minimum number of participants should be 12 students.

In the other workshop, joint projects and teaching were debated. It was determined that before developing a double degree, shared history is needed. You have to get to know each other and already have a common student and staff exchange. “Before we get married, we need to be engaged”, president Alessandro Spano said. The focus was, therefore, on what we could offer for the students. The core theme should be on international business and intercultural aspects. When students from different nations work together, they develop these skills. Possible attractive topics for students could be: Data analytics and Big data, Blockchain. Both workshops concluded that the combination of face-to-face and online activities is the best way to proceed.

At the next meeting in The Hague in May 2022, both groups will make concrete proposals on how to proceed.

IBSEN Meeting: 15th to 16 November 2021

The first conference of 2021 for the International Business Studies Exchange Network (IBSEN) was held on May 20-21. Due to the covid pandemic, the event was hosted virtually again, by Valenciennes with the help of Indian River State College for the virtual platform. 29 people attended virtually.

On day one of the conference, after the welcome words, each participant gave information about recent developments in their universities. There were a few specific presentations. Jessica Dinstel (UPHF) presented the european project Peer-IR-View, where Ibsen is an expert advisor. Bernard Wach (Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences) presented “Ibsen Entrepreneurship Workshop in February 2021 – Results and Collaboration”. Then there was a discussion about the new Ibsen agreement document, which needs to be signed by all members. At last, there was a plenary discussion on Ibsen current working topics : internationalization@home, summer schools, international internships, staff and student exchanges.

On day two of the conference, Önder Filiz (Izmir University) presented “Conquer the market by marcade: an online marketing simulation for undergraduate / postgraduate students”. Then all Ibsen members went to breakout rooms to carry on exchanging ideas on Ibsen current working topics. After the break, all groups explained what they had come up to, and participants could ask questions and propose a few ideas. There were quite a lot of proposals about Internships (virtual internships, hybrid internships) and how each university could contribute for the sake of all Ibsen members. The consensus was that each group would carry on working together on their subject until next Ibsen meeting in order to make a practical proposal which should be “test-able” by the whole group.

President Alessandro Spano expressed everybody’s whishes that even if these online meeting are highly productive, next meeting could possibly be hosted physically again by a university.

Next Ibsen Meeting should take place at IRSC, on November 15-16.