HIT's School of Multidisciplinary Studies' model is attracting attention from European universities

Dr. Nava Shaked, Head of HIT's School of Multidisciplinary Studies and the school's leading academic staff, hosted their colleagues from AP University of Applied Sciences and Arts (www.ap.be), in Antwerp, Belgium, as part of the EU's Erasmus + International Mobility Program.
 

From right: Eng. Kelly Casal Mosteiro, Engr. Yves Masset,  Dr. Hillel Eyal, Engr. Dirk Van Merode, Dr. Nava Shaked. Photo: Eran Pick

The representatives of AP University: Engr. Yves Masset and Kelly Casal Mosteiro, Heads of IT and Engr. Dirk Van Merode, Head of Projects and International Collaboration in the IT Department, spent the week meeting with staff and students at the institute to get to know and discuss multidisciplinary projects. They met with Prof. Gila Kurtz, Dean of the Faculty of Instructional Technologies and with Dr. Yonatan Schler, Head of the Department of Computer Sciences, in order to get to know and create a horizon for collaboration.

Eng. Masset: We have been collaborating with HIT for three years already and the purpose of our visit, beyond strengthening existing collaborations, is to learn how to establish a school for multidisciplinary studies in our university. We were very impressed by the entrepreneurial thinking that is taught here in the various courses.

In the workshops and meetings we held, we were impressed by the fact that the lecturers convey entrepreneurial thinking to students alongside professional thinking during the course. 
We saw examples of students' projects in 1st to 3rd year and it was inspiring to discover that they can look and think beyond their specific field. "

Dr. Nava Shaked, Head of the School of Multidisciplinary Studies: “The digital world has shown us that it is not enough to be an expert in one field such as computing, but it is important to be proficient in other disciplines as well, such as marketing, design and engineering. As part of the courses we teach, we allow students to choose the topic of the project within the field and thus make them necessarily search additional aspects and connect with them.

As part of the collaboration between HIT and AP University there are exchanges of staff from the two institutions that include workshops for students, and the university also recognizes English-language courses offered at the school (about 10 courses), in which students from the Belgian University study online.

A workshop is also planned for the summer semester at HIT in the field of VR, including a possibility of classes taught by a lecturer from AP University next year at HIT, as well as joint submissions of grants to the EU to increase future collaborations.

Posted: 02/06/2022