21-COP-0031 - Development of an integrated program for sustainable entrepreneurship in the fields of health and wellness tourism

About this project

<p><span style="font-size: 12pt"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif">The project proposes four objectives. First goal is improving education through a course on sustainable entrepreneurship, jointly developed in the partnership, and a COIL module on the topic of entrepreneurship, special interest tourism, international leadership to be included in relevant courses. The second objective is the training of the academic staff at OUC. Third, we want to develop mobility windows for student exchange in relevant study programs, making it easier for Romanian students to spend a semester in Norway and likewise for HVL students to come to OUC. Finally, we will work together to transfer good practices and offer assistance to the local business and non-profit organizations addressing regional economic challenges in southeast Romania, also involving local businesses in rural Norway.<br> The target groups are: students from both OUC and HVL, academic staff members, entrepreneurs from southeast Romania and rural Norway.<br> The expected results are: a course on sustainable entrepreneurship jointly designed and the corresponding study materials, improved curricula of several degree programs, to integrate the new course, a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) module that can be included in several courses, exchange possibilities for students from OUC and HVL, summer school for students, training materials and viii) a training course to prepare the teaching staff on sustainable entrepreneurship, a COIL project-based learning experience for students, to assist local business in changing their business models, knowledge transfer from universities to business and/or NGOs, two scientific articles and xii) final research conference.<br> The impact of the project will be reflected in the increased collaboration between the two universities and within the ERASMob European University Alliance, resulting in enhanced education, research and engagement with the local communities. </span></span></p>

Bilateral cooperation results

Both Ovidius University and Western Norway University of Applied Sciences have recently pledged to establish , together with five other higher education institutions, the ERASMob consortium, an European University Alliance. The two universities plan to gradually align their development strategies and enhance all three pillars of their mission: education, research and engagement through strong collaboration. Sustainability and sustainable entrepreneurship is a common practice in Norway while in Romania we are just at the beginning of the process. Although there was some awareness regarding the importance of the concept, practical examples on how to do it on a daily basis of business operations still lacked. Also, there were no courses and/or practica activities offered to students at OUC, related to understanding sustainability dimensions and sustainable entrepreneurship. Therefore, the expertise in this field of our colleagues from HVL was aimed to help us create and develop our capacities in this respect. Through joint training and mobilities for students and staff, joint events, implementation of new courses and didactic material, common research and institutional agreements, we managed to foster our capacity in offering education and knowledge transfer services related to sustainability to our students, staff and local community.

Project partners

• Western Norway University of Applied Sciences Donor project partner· Norway