Academic Partnership Expands with Thomas More University, Belgium

A delegation from Thomas More University paid a reciprocal visit to the School of Multidisciplinary Studies at HIT to expand their joint international ventures.

HIT representatives and the members of the Belgian delegation

The guests participated in a series of meetings with the School's faculty led by Dr. Nava Shaked, Head of the School, and Dr. Hillel Eyal, International Coordinator and Lecturer.

The discussions primarily focused on ways to build on the multidisciplinary collaborations already existing between the two institutions, and especially with the development of international courses in which student teams would be created with HIT students from different faculties, Thomas More students and students from other countries.

The academic collaborations will also provide an opportunity for faculty members to participate in international activities, such as the 'Summer School' held by Thomas More University every summer. HIT has participated in this activity with great success over the past two years. On the agenda as well will be opportunities for research collaboration and development of entrepreneurial skills.

The representatives of Thomas More University were impressed by the School's teaching methods and organization. "This is the future. We call it the 'golden ticket' to success -- the ability to combine different fields to create projects that will solve complex challenges," said Ann Hans, who teaches informatics and innovation. According to Hane Blockx, "Here we see how this thing called interdisciplinarity is put into practice.”

The delegation visited a class in "Proximity Technology to Improve Medical Services" which is taught jointly by Dr. Yoel Twill, an anthropology lecturer specializing in creativity, and Dr. Gili Peleg, a biology lecturer specializing in biometrics. The guests experienced the joint work of the lecturers and students on projects that combine different fields of knowledge. In addition, they visited the Eye-UX laboratory led by Dr. Hayely Weigelt-Marom from the Faculty of Instructional Technologies, and the Biophotonic Laboratory of Dr. Michal Balberg from the Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering.

Thomas More is the largest university of applied sciences in the Flanders region of Belgium. It has approximately 28,000 students and offers more than 30 different study programs on seven different campuses.

The delegation included representatives from various fields, including Hane Blockx, entrepreneurship and strategy coordinator, Veronique García-Alonso, lecturer in the social work department, Mark Clerkx, lecturer in business and entrepreneurship, and Tina Van Echelpoel, Computer Science lecturer and International Coordinator.

Posted: 29/05/2023