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Enhancement of the Global Perspective for Engineering Students by Providing an International Experience
April 6-11, 2003 - Tomar, Portugal
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Carl McHargue, University of Tennessee, USA
Eleanor Baum, Cooper Union, USA |
The articles for these proceedings are not peer-reviewed.
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Opportunities for International Studies: Öresund University - A Regional University
Bengt Streijffert, Öresund University
ABSTRACT:
The Öresund Region: Eastern Denmark and southernmost Sweden constitute the
Öresund Region (Öresund). It is an official "EU Crossborder Region" and has special EU
grants. It has about 3. 5 million inhabitants and is the most densely populated area in
Scandinavia. In the year 2000 a bridge was opened across the sound that separates
Denmark and Sweden. This event is often regarded as the starting point for the
crossborder region. It is a high-tech region with a number of successful companies
ranging from small startups to large international companies. There are eleven research
hospitals and seven science parks, some of them among the largest in Europe, and an
innovation-oriented public sector. The twelve universities have joined in the umbrella
organisation Öresund University.
Öresund University: ÖU was created in 1998 and has developed its organisation over the
five years it has existed. Within ÖU are two large and broad universities dating back to the
Middle Ages, two universities of technology, one of Europe´s biggest business schools, a
large university of agriculture and several new and/or specialized universities. The number
of students is about 135 000, faculty about 10 000. It is a research intense organisation
being number four or five in scientific output in Europe. It has close connections with
business and industry in Denmark and Sweden. These connections are organised within
Öresund Science Region, which is run jointly by the universities, business organisations
and regional authorities. More than 1000 companies belong to the networks within
Öresund Science Region, which consists of four "platforms" for four target areas: Medico-
Biotech, ITC, Food Sciences, Environmental Sciences. Among the objectives of Öresund
University are: (a) increased student and faculty mobility and cooperation across the
border, between universities and across disciplinary borders; (b) to make Öresund
University, its member institutions and the region attractive to international students,researchers, specialists and investors; and (c) increased cooperation with business and
industry The overall objectives are to make the universities more efficient and, through
cooperation with society, stimulate economic and other types of development in the region
and the two countries.
Cooperation within Öresund University: Cooperation and student mobility can be
"planned" or "organized" through joint programmes etc, or by making it easier for
students to move freely and choose from the enormous smorgasboard of courses,
programmes and options that exist within the organisation. We have a number of
different types of cooperation ranging from joint programmes to "plans for division of
labour" and try to create an ÖU Study Gateway, which will be a joint course catalogue on
the net. For PhD students, activities can be joint research schools, courses, seminars, and
assistant supervisors. We try to create exchange programmes that give incoming and
outgoing students maximum of options. This can e. g. be done through "system-to-system"
agreements. We also have an international summer school with about 90 different courses.
Bengt Streijffert, "Opportunities for International Studies: Öresund University - A Regional University" in "Enhancement of the Global Perspective for Engineering Students by Providing an International Experience", Carl McHargue and Eleanor Baum Eds, ECI
Symposium Series, Volume P3 (2003). http://services.bepress.com/eci/enhancement/22
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