On 6th July at 11:30 CEST, Arqus organizes the online lecture "Developing intercultural competencies: From structural internationalization to the implementation of an agenda of integration" by Silvia Didier, from the Université de Lyon.

Today one of the challenges of business schools and universities is to get away from internationalization that is purely based on structural measures. Usually, these structural measures use a simple bi-polar distinction between home and international students and staff. Spencer-Oatey and Dauber (2015) [see reference 1 below] identified three flawed assumptions about these parameters of internationalization:

Structural internationalization (automatically) improves students’ satisfaction
Structural internationalization (automatically) yields an integrated student community
Structural internationalization (automatically) leads to global skills
The latest research shows that these three assumptions are questionable. Spencer-Oatey and Dauber (2015, P.1) defend the idea that “a truly internationalized university of the future will have to measure its success not only in terms of structural factors like the number/proportion of international students but also by its ability to implement an agenda of integration that will facilitate the development of the ‘global skills’ that employers are seeking in their new employees.”

Developing intercultural and global skills is not simply an end at itself. Several recent reports [see reference 2 below] draw attention to the fact that employers are now seeking, demanding and expecting these global skills when hiring graduates from business schools or universities.

One of the key goals of the iaelyon is to teach and experience openness to multiple worlds. This includes the transfer of international, cross-cultural, professional and cross-disciplinary skills and competencies to students.

In this talk, Silvia Didier will illustrate this approach by sharing and critically discussing 2 projects that have been put in place and tested.

• A video project during the course « Intercultural management » with Master 1 Students in International Management.
• A Business Challenge with students from the Consortium MIB EPAS and the Masters’ in International Management.

Silvia Didier is an experienced intercultural trainer, consultant, expatriate coach and author of several books, working in a multi-national business setting. She has more than 20 years of work experience in the fields of marketing and communication, strategic consulting, intercultural training and executive coaching. Since 2013 she is working as a senior lecturer at the iaelyon - School of Management. She was codirecting the Master in International Management, was head of the Master 2 program International Business Realities and the Master 2 International MBA. In 2020 she was nominated associate professor at the IAE Lyon.

This is the seventh of a series of guest lectures (“Seven months, seven universities”) to be offered in the framework of the Action Line 4 of Arqus, Multilingual and Multicultural University (sub-line 4.8). These lectures focus on specific topics related to language and culture, and target mainly graduate and post-graduate students as well as early-stage researchers interested in those topics.

The webinar will take place on 6th July at 11:30 CEST. It will be broadcast live on the Arqus YouTube channel.

References:

1 Spencer-Oatey, Helen / Dauber, Daniel (2015) : How internationalised is your university? From structural indicators to an agenda of integration.- GlobalPAD Working papers. Available at GlobalPAD Open House.
2 Diamond et al. on behalf of Agr, CIHE, CFE (2011): Global Graduates. Global graduates into global leaders; The CBI: Education and Skills Survey; The Economist (2013): Competing across Borders. How cultural & communication barriers affect business, Economist Intelligence Unit; The British Council (2013): Culture at Work. The value of intercultural skills in the workplace.

In the latest QS World University Rankings 2022, Vilnius University (VU) took a record high position and for the first time, ranked 400th in this ranking.

This is also the highest rating ever achieved by Lithuanian universities in the global ranking of QS universities; therefore, this position is significant not only for the history of higher education at VU but also for the whole of Lithuanian higher education.

“Being among the 400 best universities in the world is a significant achievement for all Lithuanian higher education, testifying to the fact that our country has all the prerequisites for the highest level of international science and studies.

I am certain that we are strong enough to establish ourselves among the best universities in the world and to adhere to the highest standards as they are understood in the international scientific community. However, this requires constant constructive dialogue with the public authorities so that the funding of science and studies allows for the planning of a long-term perspective.

We prove that we can achieve and exceed the set goals, the state must prove that it considers education a priority,” VU Rector Prof. Rimvydas Petrauskas said.

VU has been ranked in the global QS rankings among more than one and a half thousand other higher education institutions for almost a decade, and this time has risen by more than 200 positions in total. First evaluated in 2014, VU ranked 601-650. Currently, being in the 400th position, VU represents Lithuania by shaping high scientific standards, which increasingly contribute to attracting international researchers and becomes a serious competitor to prestigious European universities.

“We are proud of the academic community of Vilnius University. Its efforts strengthen not only the global image of the university but also the image of the city. This time, by being among the top 400, VU has once again proved that it has the energy to grow and create breakthrough ideas,” Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius said.

This year, VU ranked especially high - 135 position - in terms of teaching quality. According to the criterion of academic reputation, rising by 27 positions compared to last year, this year VU ranks 400th, and 434th in terms of employee evaluation.

When compiling QS world university rankings, higher education institutions are evaluated according to a total of six criteria: Academic Reputation, rating of the best institutions in terms of research, Employer Reputation, rating of the best professional training institutions, Citations per Faculty, the ratio of the number of students and lecturers in the departments (Faculty Student), the share of foreign lecturers (International Faculty) and the number of foreign students (International Students).

Office of the Chief Archivist of Lithuania together with the Faculty of Communication of Vilnius University, Baltic Audio-visual Archival Council and partners are organizing an international scientific conference on “Displaced Documentary Heritage: Identification, Availability, Research, and Dissemination” on September 21–22, 2021 and invite to submit presentations.

The goals of the conference are to urge both researchers and practicians to discuss and bring up to date the issue of the documentary heritage, related to Lithuania though preserved abroad, the so-called, displaced heritage: its identification, availability, recovery of original documents or their digital versions.The goals also include the discussions on the significance of such heritage for the development of both the Lithuanian nation and the state, also its potential in such areas as historical, cultural or social development research, digital reconstructions or cultural and creative industries. During the conference, the organisers expect to have a conceptual discussion on the search for (identification of) the documentary heritage, taken away from Lithuania, as well as the way it relates to the heritage consisting of books and manuscripts or the heritage preserved in the museums. The discussion will also include such issues as the state of things in the archives, accumulated by the Lithuanian communities abroad, prospective areas of activities of memory institutions, as well as sharing the results of research.

Participants are invited to deliver their presentations on the following sub-topics:

• Reasons, development and the actors involved in the destruction of archival collections.
• Research of the scattered heritage with the view of the state development, national identity and expression of historical memory.
• Legal aspects of preservation, retrieval and use of the scattered documentary heritage.
• Accumulation and management of the information on the Lithuania-related documentary heritage in Lithuania.
• Documentary heritage, preserved in the institutions of the Lithuanian communities abroad, the research of this heritage and the problems related to its retrieval.
• Lithuania-related documentary heritage, preserved in foreign institutions, the research of this heritage, its digitisation and dissemination.
• Interinstitutional and international cooperation in the area of identification and preservation of the displaced heritage related to Lithuania.
• Problem of origin and typology of the displaced heritage. Documents of the working and personal nature, ego-document collections.
• Representations of the documentary heritage on social networking sites, reconstruction of the collections and their dissemination in virtual environment.
• Information and communication of the audio-visual heritage, digitisation and research of the displaced heritage.

Date of the conference: September 21, 2021– September 22, 2021.

Venue: Office of the Chief Archivist of Lithuania; Mindaugo St. 8, Vilnius.

Working languages: English, Lithuanian.

Specifications: both physical and online participation.

Deadline for submitting the summaries of presentations: summaries of presentations (250–300 words), including the topic, name of the author(s), scientific degree or teaching title, institution and contact details (address, phone number and e-mail), are to be submitted by 15 June 2021 on the e-mail address:

Information on the acceptance of presentations: speakers will be informed on the acceptance of their summaries by 30 June 2021.

Duration of presentation: 20 minutes. It is planned to publicize the presentation based articles in a special edition of 2022 of the journal “Knygotyra”, which is referred to in the ElsevierScopus database since 2018. Planned date for submitting: by 12 December 2021.

Contact persons:

• dr. (HP) Arvydas Pacevičius – Professor at the Faculty of Communication of Vilnius University.
• Daiva Lukšaitė – Head of the Unit of Document and Archives Management and Use of the Office of Chief Archivist of Lithuania.

Organizational Committee:

• Asta Petraitytė-Briedienė, Researcher at the Lithuanian Emigration Institute of Vytautas Magnus University.
• Juozapas Blažiūnas, Director of Lithuanian Archives of Literature and Art.
• GiedrėMilerytė-Japertienė, Head of the Division of Historical Collections of the National Museum of Lithuania.
• Daiva Lukšaitė, Head of the Unit of Document and Archives Management and Use of the Office of Chief Archivist of Lithuania,
• Kristina Ramonienė, Chief Archivist of Lithuania,
• Juozas Markauskas, President of the Baltic Audio-visual Archival Council, Member of the Council for Digitisation of Lithuanian Cultural Heritage.
• dr. (HP) Arvydas Pacevičius, Professor at the Faculty of Communication ofVilnius University,
• dr. Juozas Skirius, Professor at the Faculty of Humanities and Chief Researcher at the Lithuanian Emigration Institute of Vytautas Magnus University,
• Vitalija Stravinskienė, Researcher at the Lithuanian Institute of History,
• Inga Zakšauskienė, Assistant at the Faculty of History of Vilnius University.

The Vilnius University Technology Hub has launched the Nominal Scholarship Competition for the best defended thesis prepared during degree studies. The students themselves can apply directly or the candidates can be nominated by their academic supervisor.

For more information please read the attached file.

On 4th May, 2021, dr. Audra Diers-Lawson will read lecture about crisis communication for students of International Communication (both English and Lithuanian) and Public Relations study programs.

Dr. Audra Diers-Lawson is chair of ECREA Crisis Communication Division, editor of Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research, also Course Leader Public Relations and Brand Communication, and Research Lead at School of Public Relations and Journalism of Leeds Becket university.

During the lecture dr. Audra Diers-Lawson will share a case study about whistleblowing in Norwegian charity as a way to talk about some of the critical challenges of crisis communication in NGO's. Other topic will be about the challenges for organizations in negotiating complex environments where they may have to manage their own stakeholders, opponents, the media, and all across multiple platforms.

We are pleased to invite you to the opening of the online exhibition "An Engineer's Odyssey", about the life and work of Geert Hofstede. You will find it as of 12 February 2021, one year after his death, on www.exhibition.geert hofstede.com