New internationalization formats: BIP courses and virtual mobility

“The BIPs allow the international mobility to be more inclusive; it is a chance for the students who, perhaps due to economic or personal reasons, cannot undergo longer mobilities”, says the vice-rector for Internationalization Policy of the University of Barcelona, Raúl Ramos.

This is the second year that BIPs have been taught in the European Union, and the UB is already coordinating some of them. A session on 8 February in the Historical Building exposed the possibilities of the BIPs and will present a document that aims to organize this new mode of learning at the UB and it will give some guidelines to put it into practice.

UB genetics Professor Marc Valls is the coordinator of a BIP on the genomic editing technique known as CRISPR. "It is an ideal subject to offer in a BIP: the practical part does not take much time and, with the Erasmus programme, we received funding that allowed us to carry out the experiments. In addition, the mix of people from different backgrounds, who are very motivated to learn this technology, has made possible a very intense debate during the course", he explains.

Last January, students from the universities of Barcelona, Nova de Lisboa, Helsinki, Montpellier and Strasbourg gathered in the laboratories of the Faculty of Biology of the UB to follow this BIP on CRISPR. One of the students, Claudia Mariani, a bachelor student of Biotechnology at the UB, says that participation in the course has allowed her to "work together on a project with a girl from Lisbon and a boy from France, and she has seen different points of view from people from different centers and with different studies”. 

"The BIPs allow you to take degree, master's and doctorate subjects with hybrid teaching tools", states the vice-rector of Teaching Policy at the UB, Concepció Amat. "Working precisely with these new learning methodologies, which combine virtual and face-to-face sessions, is precisely one of the lines we have within the teaching innovation programs of the UB", she adds.

The conference on 8 February at the UB included a presentation by Robert O'Dowd, expert in virtual mobility, and Klementyna Kielak, who talked about the work and reflections on the BIP carried out by the European University Foundation network. A roundtable talked about some of the pioneering experiences in BIP at the UB, and at the end, the new UB document was presented to organize this new form of mobility. It describes the characteristics of BIPs and their academic recognition, and it explains some recommendations for their implementation, among other information. The document is available in the Office of Mobility and International Programsʼ TRS news section.