Join the ECIU strategic challenge and spice up you Master's thesis
The ECIU Strategic Challenge is a unique combination of working on your individual Master’s thesis project while simultaneously working in an international interdisciplinary team on a self-chosen challenge – a real societal problem that you as a team will investigate, and find and implement a solution. You will do this according to challenge-based learning, a learning philosophy that gives you lots of freedom to make your own choices. As the challenge and your topic of the Master’s thesis are related, working on these two topics simultaneously will enhance the quality of both assignments and will deepen your learning.
Sounds nice, what is the challenge about?The general topic of the challenge is ‘climate neutral campus in Europe’. As a team of students, you will ask questions to find out what this challenge is all about, and define as a group what aspect you will investigate further. As you will also implement your solution in one or more universities of your team mates, you can actually see the impact of your efforts and have a positive effect on your fellow students.
International team, what does that mean?The Strategic Challenge is open to all Master students from all ECIU-partners, a consortium of 13 European universities. Your team of 4 – 5 students will consist of students from these different universities. We aim for several multidisciplinary teams that will work on this challenge. As such, you will increase your skills in international cooperation and learn from different international and multidisciplinary perspectives.Most meetings and cooperation will be online, with your team and with all teams, but at least one session will be face-to-face on one of the participating universities. So, you will travel abroad and meet your teammates and the other students in person.
Sounds great, I want to apply. What should I do?Go to the website https://engage.eciu.eu/challenges/33d911ee-bdf7-419a-94df-1b445a7d0621 and apply (from 1 November onwards). Furthermore, you should look for an academic advisor in your own institute who will supervise you during your Master’s thesis project. As the Strategic Challenge is about the combination of a Master’s thesis and a group challenge, we can only admit students who have a local supervisor.
When does this take place?The ECIU Strategic Challenge starts in February 2024 and runs until the end of June 2024. The idea is that your Master’s thesis has a similar time frame, although a slightly earlier or later start or finish is okay too.
I want more information, where can I find it?You can have a look at https://eciu.tuhh.de/en/strategic-challenge-eng/ for a description of the Strategic Challenge framework and at https://www2.tuhh.de/zll/blog/towards-a-climate-neutral-campus-first-strategic-challenge-achieves-great-results/ for some experiences of students in an earlier Strategic Challenge. If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact one of the coordinators Nadine Stahlberg of Hamburg University of Technology (nadine.stahlberg@tuhh) or Frank van den Berg of the University of Twente (f.m.j.w.vandenberg@utwente.nl).