Simply rethought – EDUC THINK LAB

EDUC THINK LAB – a European Student Think Tank for the Digitalisation of Universities

What kind of environment do students need to be able to study successfully in an international setting? In search of answers to this question, starting in the academic year 2024/25, 16 students from EDUC universities set out to work on this question in the EDUC THINK LAB Virtual Campus. Two spots in the Think Lab are available for students from the University of Potsdam to participate in the programme and shape the future virtual campus. Their participation is powered by the University Scholarship Potsdam (Deutschlandstipendium) over 12 months starting in the winter semester 2024/25. Students can apply online, starting July 1.

The EDUC THINK LAB is a miniature think tank. It was created to involve the largest stakeholder group of our universities – the students – in the process of developing the EDUC virtual campus. In this format, students develop concrete ideas and realisable components that they would like to see as integral parts of their virtual campus and present them to a European panel of experts.

The EDUC THINK LAB Virtual Campus is

• a miniature think tank for students of EDUC universities
• designed to involve one of EDUC’s biggest stakeholder group – the students – in the digital campus building process
• a place where students voice their needs and expectations for an international and digital university
• a format to come up with and present concrete ideas and feasible components that students wish to be integral parts of the EDUC virtual campus.

How does the EDUC THINK LAB work?

• It is a programme for 16 students, two students per EDUC university. The selected students receive a scholarship / working contract / internship contract (depending on their home university) to facilitate their participation.

• It will be running over a period of 12 months.
• It can be implemented through student groups working (on a maximum of four different components of the digital campus).
• It will be supervised by a group of thematically related experts from the EDUC universities.
• Participating students will be in regular dialogue with the EDUC experts.
• Students will produce interim results and a final presentation of components for a digital campus in a public presentation and in front of the EDUC Steering Committee.
• Participation in the Think Lab requires a minimum working time of two hours per week.

What we are looking for in a nutshell

Building and developing a virtual campus needs many skills and perspectives: from hands-on programming skills and user experience design to thinking about how to engage a student community and what else might be essential to create a virtual campus that is a place for learning and mutual exchange. While the programme has been developed especially with students from the fields of IT, media and education in mind, we encourage students from all subjects to apply.

What is EDUC?

EDUC is short for European Digital UniverCity. It is a transformative alliance of eight European universities from seven countries whose aim is to create an inclusive European higher education area where students, researchers, teaching staff, and other employees at the partner universities can learn, teach, and work together. The EDUC virtual campus is the jointly used digital infrastructure that ensures this international learning and networking between the universities and students.

Universities in the EDUC alliance are: University of Potsdam (Germany), University of Cagliari (Italy), Masaryk University (Czech Republic), University of Pécs (Hungary), University Paris Nanterre (France), University of Rennes (France), Jaume I University (Spain), University of South-Eastern Norway (Norway)