The Polish alliance
Tue, 21 Aug 2012 09:36:00 BST
Universities of Huddersfield and Rzezsow could team up for nano-technology research
From the left: Dr Bogdan Wierzbinski, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Rzezsow; Professor Alexander Bobko, newly-elected as Rector of University of Rzezso; the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield, Prof Bob Cryan; and Dr John Anchor, who is Head of the Department of Strategy and Marketing within the Business School.
STRONG links in the field of business studies that that have been forged between the University of Huddersfield and the University of Rzezsow in Poland could soon be expanded to include joint research into important new areas of science and technology.
Over the past six years, a total of 150 students from the university in south-eastern Poland have come to Huddersfield’s Business School for a final year’s degree study.
The connection began after Poland and other countries in Central Europe joined the EU in 2004. Dr John Anchor, who is Head of the Department of Strategy and Marketing within the Business School and who has carried out detailed research into the emerging economies of Central and Eastern Europe, quickly realised that new areas of recruitment had opened up.
Visits were paid to a number of universities in Poland and other parts of the region and the University of Rzezsow became a particularly good partner.
“It is almost exactly the same size as us, so we are compatible institutions and we have quite a similar academic profile in terms of the subjects which are offered,” said Dr Anchor.
One of the recent intake of Polish students at the University of Huddersfield’s Business School was Bartosz Bobko, whose father is Professor Alexander Bobko, newly elected as Rector of the University of Rzezsow.
Professor Bobko - who has visited Huddersfield in the past – came to his son’s graduation in Business with Financial Services and he held talks with the University of Huddersfield’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Bob Cryan.
“It emerged that there was a common interest in nano-technology, which is an area of considerable strength within our School of Computing and Engineering at Huddersfield,” said Dr Anchor.
The University of Rzezsow has been investing heavily in facilities for research in nano-technology and the University of Huddersfield is home to an EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Advanced Metrology, directed by Professor Xiangqian Jiang, recently elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Engineering.
At the meeting between Prof Cryan and Prof Bobko, it was provisionally agreed that nano-technology researchers from Rzezsow would pay a visit to Huddersfield and that a reciprocal visit to the Polish university would be made by Prof Cryan, who is an engineer himself.
The stream of Polish business studies students who have come to Huddersfield have proved to be a success, says Dr Anchor.
“One of the things that students from that part of the world appreciate is that we teach differently,” he added.
“We are less teacher-centred. Our students have much more freedom in terms of their study programmes, the assessment process is more variable and we have very a well developed re process of quality assurance”.
