UNWE Students Presented the University in an Innovative COIL Course
The UNWE was presented by its students in one of the most advanced forms of collaborative teaching - COIL /Collaborative Online International Learning/. More than 100 students from three ENGAGE.EU universities - UNWE, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business /Austria/ and LUISS /Rome/ – took part in the collaborative course in International Business. Joint COIL 2022 was focused on solving a real business problem - introducing a new product of an Italian pharmaceutical company to international markets. The specific tasks related to the new brand development, market assessment and internationalization strategies started with a product presentation by a business consultant of the company. Within more than a month, each team, including students from the three universities, had to present views on solving the problem till 5 December 2022. A joint team of lecturers advised the students. Prof. D.Sc./Econ./ Bistra Boeva and Chief Assist. Dr. Christian Zhelev from the UNWE International Economic Relations and Business Department were mentors of the participants in the competition.
"The excellent performance of our students and teams of lecturers in such innovative educational initiatives reveals the true potential of UNWE. It shows the initiative, willingness to participate and the level of preparation of our students to perform with dignity at the international level. Congratulations to all the participants who once again showed that we are in no way inferior to European universities", declared Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mihail Musov, Vice Rector for Research and International Affairs, Head of the ENGAGE.EU initiatives for Bulgaria.
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"Like any project, there were many unknowns, including what the reaction of the students would be, whether or not there would be interest in participating in the project. The Coordinator of the initiative was Prof. Alexander Mohr from the WU. We were also in a partnership with Prof. Maria Jell Ojobor from the LUISS University. For the Bulgarian participants the project is new but they achieved really excellent results. The team of Teodora Peneva, student in the Master programme in International Business, received the highest award of the impartial jury, which evaluated the projects of 25 international teams", commented Prof. Boeva.
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"For me it is a wonderful initiative which is a consequence of the deepening cooperation within the ENGAGE.EU. The students had the opportunity to work in international teams as well as to see in practice how the real international business cases are solved. All this is important for the development of practical skills of students as it is also a good opportunity for them to check the relevance and topicality of the knowledge we provide them within our Bachelor and Master programmes", pointed out Chief Assist. Dr. Christian Zhelev.
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"The partnership within COIL between the students themselves, between the students and lecturers and between the lecturers themselves is also one of the project's strengths. The collegiality, the friendliness between the students on the one hand, as well as between the students and lecturers on the other, are just one addition to the work on the project. And one more thing, the project builds excellent relations between the future leaders in Europe", said Teodora Peneva.
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"I think the project was extremely fruitful because it was a real project, not just a business case. We were able to work with different cultures on a project at an international level. We were able to apply a lot of the knowledge gained at the university and gain new knowledge", said Stella Nikolova.
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About the COIL
COIL or Collaborative Online International Learning connects accredited courses, linking the classrooms of two or more higher education institutions, each located in a different country or cultural setting. The COIL model does not merely promote students from different countries sharing an online classroom. Rather, COIL creates equitable team-taught learning environments where lecturers from various cultures work together to develop a shared syllabus, emphasizing experiential and collaborative student learning.
What give the students their participation in this interdisciplinary COIL project:
- Students clash with the reality of a tough business - pharmaceuticals;
- Study and research a significant amount of data in a short period of time;
- Testing the acquired knowledge in reality;
- Ability to independently manage and implement an international project;
- Knowledge exchange;;
- Communication skills in an international cultural environment;
- Innovation /design thinking/ and pragmatic solutions to a specific problem of practice. Comprehensive solutions linking the business solutions to the Sustainable Development Goals - Sustainable Consumption /Goal 12/.
