Pécs Summer School: 120% Enthusiasm

2023

Jul

31

The International Centre of the University of Pécs offers six summer school programs for the summer of 2023. Three of them have been organized simultaneously in July, when the University of Pécs hosted 120 students from 5 continents and 22 countries. The three summer schools provided joint programs as well, where all of the participants could meet.

One hundred and twenty participants from 5 continents

In July, 40 students arrived from ESIEA University in France to attend four weeks of English language and intercultural training offered by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. The European Studies Summer School attracted students from all over the world. They study European economy, politics, history, culture, and art history for two weeks. The Erasmus BIP summer school organized for students of the EDUC university association and the University of Pécs explored current issues of social ecology. In addition to classes, students also conducted field exercises at two civil communities in Pécs.

"In addition to classes, we also provided a wide variety of cultural programs for students, with the aim of getting to know the city of Pécs, the region and gaining an intercultural experience of a lifetime.

The programs included Quiz Evening, Intercultural Evening, Evening of Hungarian Flavours, wine tasting, museum visit, and excursion to Orfű-Abaliget," said dr. Gyöngyi Pozsgai, Head of the Study Abroad and Summer University Office of the UP International Centre.

Intertwined cultural patterns

"Our goal was also to organize joint programs for students of parallel summer schools. The Intercultural Evening and the European Union Quiz Evening were a great experience for the students. It was a great pleasure for them to participate in joint programs with students from all over the world" - added dr. Gyöngyi Pozsgai. At the Quiz Night, for example, there were no teams from the same country.

At the quiz event, which filled the grand lecture hall of the Faculty of Law completely, all teams wanted to win, they tried to give the best of their knowledge to be able to answer serious and less serious questions. Some of the questions were about to the European Union, e.g. where the European Parliament is located or what the founding states were of the federation. For the musical part, among other things, the Ode to Joy had to be recognized, which caused spontaneous waves in the rows of participants, and a little later young people from 22 countries sang together from Oasis' Wonderwall – aimed somewhat to each other - "Because maybe you're going to be the one who saves me".

Speaking of saving someone: even at such a light-hearted event, we could feel that these young people are not only open, but also truly want to save the world. "It was also a great pleasure for us to see how open and respectful each other's cultures were with students from 5 continents. At the Intercultural Evening, they themselves stated that

they would like to gain as much knowledge about each culture as possible in order to be more accepting and supportive,"

said dr. Gyöngyi Pozsgai.

7 years of Pécs Summer School

The Pécs Summer School program was launched in 2016 by the then Centre of Foreign Affairs with the aim of organizing an increasing number of summer schools at the University of Pécs every year. The main goal was to create the so-called "Summer Trimester" to enrich the summer with more and more international summer school programs in various subject areas. After successful summer programs, more and more students return to UP for semester-length training or even full degree programs. Due to the increasing number of summer university programs, UP has become a market leader among Hungarian higher education institutions in this field as well.

The courses are attended by students of foreign partner universities as well as students of UP. Academic programs are provided by different faculties, while programs are fully organized by the International Centre's Study Abroad and Summer School Office.