Summer School in Ljubljana 2014

Policy Travel

Policy Travel was the main theme of the UNIKE Summer school in Ljubljana, Slovenia 7  – 11 July 2014. The five day PhD course included lectures, panel discussions and meetings with students to discuss their research proposals. This was the third workshop in the PhD training package for the EU Marie Curie Initial Training Network, Universities In the Knowledge Economy (UNIKE).

The UNIKE workshops are subdivided into three different elements: Scientific training, complimentary skills and Aspects of doctoral education.

The UNIKE Ljubljana Summer School had the following focus:

1. Scientific training: The objective was to establish a solid theoretical grounding for the analysis of policy ‘movements’, as well as methodological and conceptual tools for analysing specific policies. The different sessions around `Policy Travel` aimed to equip fellows with skills needed to interpret policies in context, as well as understand their transformations in a spatial and temporal perspective. The scientific training also included a public lecture by Cris Shore (University of Auckland) on Academic Entrepreneurship.

2. Complementary skills: This was focused on fundraising and grants to provide fellows with an understanding of the general grant-making ‘landscape’ in Europe and beyond. Additionally a session as on how to built up a web-presence was provided  to give fellows an overview of the different online tools academics use to publicise or communicate about their research online.

3. Aspects of doctoral education: Results of the survey on practices of doctoral education send out to fellows and Partners´ institutions were presented and discussed.  The objective of the survey was to map the existing practices on doctoral education, as well as to provide a space for partners and fellows to engage in the critical reflection concerning their own involvement in the process.

Besides these three aspects, the fellows had ample opportunities to discuss their research progress with mentors and other partners, as well as to get acquainted with Ljubljana, the Lake Bled and environs. The social activities were highly engaging, and provided a fantastic backdrop in which to continue these conversations in a less formal atmosphere.

Speakers have been:

Dorothy Smith (University of Victoria), Roger Dale (University of Bristol), Astrid Cermak (University of Copenhagen), Karin Doolan (University of Zadar), Pavel Zgaga (University of Ljubljana), Katja Breskvar(University of Ljubljana), Isabel Menezes (by Skype, University of Porto), Debie Epstein (by Skype, University of Roehampton)

Read the Ljubljana Summer School Summary

Pictures of the Summer School