University of Opole has launched three-year international project

The project ‘Enhancing an evidence-based approach in business-oriented courses’ is part of the Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership, and will last three years. The inaugural meeting took place on 18 December 2024 in the Senate Hall of the University of Opole.

The project is intended to address the needs of teachers and students for evidence-based teaching and learning. The participants will review the current literature and look at the practices undertaken. All with the aim of equipping teachers and students with new materials developed using an evidence-based approach.

In addition, the partners will interview academics on their current practices, as well as students on their insights and satisfaction with the teaching methods. Workshops in twelve universities and the creation of a centre fostering evidence-based teaching are also on the agenda.

The project involves six academic institutions: the University of Malta (Malta), the Center for Evidence-based Management (the Netherlands,) the University of Zagreb (Croatia), the University of Economics in Prague (the Czech Republic), the University of Economics in Wrocław (Poland) and finally the University of Opole (Poland), which is the leader of this collaboration.

‘The Faculty of Philology and the Faculty of Economics are involved in the project tasks. This is yet another collaboration between these faculties and the University of Malta,’ emphasises Prof. Elżbieta Szymańska-Czaplak, who coordinates the project on behalf of the UO. ‘We have jointly implemented the NAWA Strategic Partnerships project ‘Competent student – Experienced Graduate’, and run a series of seminars on evidence-based management for students, academics and representatives of the university’s business environment.have

The seminars were conducted by then CEBMa Managing Director, Eric Barends and Prof. Dennise Rousseau from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA. It was during those seminars that the idea of disseminating the evidence-based approach in Central and Eastern Europe and jointly applying for funding for the project was conceived. The City of Opole has also become an associate partner of the project.

The meeting in the Senate Hall, which opened the above cooperation, was attended by representatives of all the institutions participating in the project. On behalf of the UO, these were: Rector, Prof. Jacek Lipok, Vice-Rector for Development and Finance, Prof. Rafał Matwiejczuk; Vice-Rector for Research, Prof. Daniel Pietrek, Dean of Faculty of Philology, Prof. Elżbieta Szymańska-Czaplak; Dr Pradeep Kumar, Marlena Jaworska, Karolina Młotek and Paulina Panic.

The University of Malta was represented by Prof. Frank Bezzina and Prof. Vincent Cassar, the Centre for Evidence-based Management by Dr Eric Berends, the University of Zagreb by Lana Cindrić, the University of Economics in Prague by Prof. Zuzana Křečková Kroupová, and the University of Economics in Wrocław by Prof. Katarzyna Tracz-Krupa, and Prof. Dorota Molek-Winiarska.

The meeting, which started on Wednesday, will last until Friday. The results developed during the three-year project will be made available on its website. They will include reports, materials for teachers and courses for students.

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