my zlin

01 June 2010

WISHES Project

WISHES is a new project developed by several European Universities which are the members of the Erasmus Mundus Programme. Nowadays their primary aim is to establish a new mobility portal for the university students who want to study abroad. For this reason, they are trying to build a database of interested students, higher education intuitions and enterprises.

Until now they organized several workshops in Germany, Cyprus, Austria and Turkey. The official launch of WISHES mobility portal to the public will be in September 2010. For now, the portal is supported by 70 universities but in a short time i believe that this number will be doubled thanks to their aggressive and informative marketing.

Benefits for students
As an innovative networking and intelligent information tool WISHES offers plenty of benefits for international students
WISHES enables you to: Easily find your dream job / dream university abroad– supported by former students feedback.

Make well informed decisions grounded on the relevant information – based on the expressed needs of 4.000 students worldwide.

Directly get in touch with students of your future university – before going abroad.

Sustainably network not only towards students but also towards higher education institutions and enterprises – expending your stay abroad by an internship.

Fully benefit from the Bologna Process – enhancing your CV by an unforgettable stay abroad.

If you are interested in this project, keep on checking my blog. I will try to inform you about the developments in the WISHES project and their upcoming mobility portal.

Below you can find some FAQ and answers to them taken from the projects website.

When will WISHES be launched?
In September 2010 the portal will be opened first time for students.

How many universities are involved in WISHES?
The WISHES mobility portal is set up by a consortium consisting of 9 institutions (see partner). Furthermore, a growing number of currently 70 supporting institutions already ensured to benefit from WISHES from its very beginning. (see WISHES network).

How is WISHES financed – if it is free of charge for all users?
WISHES is a European project and is as such co-financed by the European Commission under the former Action 4 of the Erasmus Mundus Programme. In detail 65% are financed by the Commission, 35% by the Consortium.

How does WISHES help students to find the right place to work/study abroad?
Via the WISHES mobility portal students have got a central source of information to find interesting study and work offers in Europe. WISHES provides well structured information based on the expressed needs of 4.000 students. Therewith, it highly reduces the efforts for students to find the best matching university and/or enterprise for their time spent abroad.

How does WISHES connect international students even before going abroad?
This is realized by the WISHES online community that is included within the WISHES mobility portal. Each student has got the possibility to create his/her own user profile and can then start to communicate with other students. That’s how contacts towards former and/or future international students can be easily established and obstacles to mobility are reduced. Thus, students can already find friends/roommates etc before their first day at the new university which in result strengthens their decision to go abroad.

What are the differences between WISHES and the study-in-europe.org website?
The study-in-europe.org website provides the user with general information about the country one would like to study in. WISHES on the other hand offers detailed information about the particular university one is interested in – including everything one wants to know about the future place to study/work and to live: where to find suitable accommodation, which courses to participate in etc. Furthermore, WISHES offers the opportunity to start a social network and find friends even before the first day in the new country by the “WISHES online community”.

Why is WISHES not yet supported by all European HEIs?
The WISHES project is still a relatively new project which was approved in October 2008. It was presented on several international conferences and the interest attracted is enormous. However, up until now, not all European HEIs know of WISHES and thus, did not yet have any possibility to announce their interest. In case your own institution is not yet listed in our mobility portal and you would like to change this, please feel free to get in touch with us by means of the following contact form.)

You can request exclusive access to the WISHES mobility portal before its official launch by means of the following contact form.

14 May 2010

Majales 2010 UTB, Tomas Bata University in Zlin

SVŠ Majáles UTB is an traditional student festival takes place every year at the beginning of May in various parts of small university city of Czech Republic, Zlin.

In Czech Republic, each university city has it's own Majales. During these festivals, various activities and performances of popular Czech bands take place whole day and night long.
Majales is not a festival just for the university students. High school students are also highly welcomed. (Actually this year i think high school students were dominant.)

This year Majales took place on 4th of May. The festival started with the traditional walk from the parking lot in front of the U2 building. Students in various interesting costumes walked through the Komenskeho Park and reached nam. Miru (main square) as usual.

Due to the fact that this year’s theme was “Space”, participants were dressed according to this theme. I gave my best costume award to the girls who were dressed totally in whites. They were symbolizing Milky-Way. Also the guy with a totally black make up who was symbolizing the black hole was one of the bests.

During the concert of the Czech rock duo Xindl, there was a little surprise for me. Lead vocal of the duo changed the melody of one of their famous song called Andel and started to sing it like Tarkan’s (Turkish pop-star) worldwide known song “Simarik (Kiss Kiss)”. Unfortunately, there was one tiny problem. Before Xindl started to perform this, he told that he will sing Andel in the rhythm of an Arabic singers song. Yeap, actually the singer whom he was calling as an Arab was the %100 Turkish pop-star Tarkan. Anyway, i am used to it. In the Czech Republic, if you are somewhere from near-Asia or Middle-East, no matter what, Czechs consider you as an Arab :)

Daytime activities of the festival ended with the perfect performance of an old Czech rock band, Mnaga a Zdorp. These dedeckove (grandfathers) have incredible energy. Especially the lead vocal of the band, he was something like 45 but jumping and singing like 18. In the video below, at the final part of it, you can listen their song Goin Down and watch their spectacular performance.

Majales activities continue at night also. All over Zlin, every club host some special party and entertain all the students of the city. While highschool students celebrate their graduation, university students party for the last time before their final exams. As all you know that i am not an outgoing personality, i have brought you a video and photos only from the day time activities. For the night photos you can check here.