AN INSIDE VIEW ON THE 7TH BRIGHT CONFERENCE

“One thing about the Bright conference is that you wouldn’t believe the amount of horrible puns we make. I’ve heard them all and then some,” jokes Anneleen Hannes, student of languages at the K.U.Leuven. We’ll throw in one for the road anyway: while the ominous ashes of the Eyjafjallajökull threaten to cast a cloud over the conference, its brightness still shines through.

Every year the League of European Research Universities, LERU for short, organises a Bright conference in one of its member universities. It grew out of a small exchange program between two universities into a much wider enterprise of 12 universities. The main goal is to allow students to voice their critical opinion on prevalent issues in the European Union. This year the beautiful Ludwig-Maximilians-Universtität München was chosen as a host to this intellectual event. The theme for this edition centred on University Teaching in Europe: Challenges and Perspectives. The K.U.Leuven sent a delegation of 10 students to represent our ‘brightest’ in Germany.

The day starts off with a short breakfast after which the first plenary session takes place; the second one is scheduled for the afternoon. Different speakers discuss their theoretical research and practical experience in teaching and education is general. Next are the working group sessions, where the students themselves get to talk about specific themes by brainstorming. Before coming to the meeting they were all asked to write a short essay on their designated theme to make sure that all participants are well prepared. Every group consists of a nice mix of universities, ages and includes people from various fields of study, which leads to interesting discussions. “I didn’t know how different some of the systems of education are in Europe,” says Anneleen, whose working group was centred around the question “How can university teaching be improved?” At the end of the conference every working group presents their findings in a short presentation.

After all that intellectual activity the students have some free time to spend roaming around the city of Munich. This way the participants have the chance to get to know each other better and learn from their cultural differences. Perhaps this is one of the best consequences of the conference. “It’s amazing to meet so many interesting people from so many different backgrounds. All of us are here to learn about and to experience the cultural diversity in Europe. Maybe we can learn from each other and improve a few things about our own university teaching,” Anneleen remarks.

The Bright conference is an intercultural, European exchange of knowledge between students from various backgrounds, who are willing to learn from each other. Anneleen concludes that there was a productive and fruitful atmosphere, but also enough time to relax and to get to know each other. The gathering was rounded up by a festive gala to celebrate the young intellectuals in Europe, who are ready to step into a bright future. |