DOBA University of Applied Sciences at the 38th Annual Businet Conference: Shaping the Future of Higher Education

DOBA University of Applied Sciences also actively participated in the annual conference of the Businet network, which took place in Sofia, Bulgaria from the 12th to the 15th of November. The conference, held under the title »Shaping the Future«, brought together over 150 representatives from higher education institutions across Europe and beyond to discuss key challenges and trends in higher education.

The key topics of this year's conference covered current challenges and opportunities in the higher education sector, including the role and impact of artificial intelligence in higher education, collaboration and communication with Generation Z, the development and organisation of COIL and BIP projects, designing joint educational programmes, transferring best practices between institutions, and the importance of networking and international cooperation.

The faculty was represented by:

• Dr. Marina Letonja, Lecturer

Dr. Letonja actively participated in the work of the Entrepreneurship expert group and conducted a workshop within the international project Game4Change, where she presented approaches to developing entrepreneurial competencies through games, innovation, and digital approaches. Regarding her participation, she wrote: »I attended the Businet conference, where I actively participated in the working group on entrepreneurship (new project application opportunities are opening: EDUTRA - Alliances of Innovation; WeGrow, BIPs), research, and supply chain management. At the conference, together with colleagues from the Game4Change project (Ria Slingerland, Helge Fischer, and with the support of Pawel Urgasz), we conducted a very successful and well-attended workshop on the theme 'When students need to be activated,' where we played the Crisis management game with the participants. We also presented a platform on gamification that we developed within the G4C project, which will soon be available to teachers and students. Additionally, we generated an idea during a special meeting to upgrade the G4C project with a new application (Alliances of Innovation).

• Nina Turčin, Academic Advisor and Erasmus Coordinator

Nina participated as the Co-chair of the Internationalisation at Home (I@H) working group. She also attended the expanded Businet Board of Governors meeting, where members discussed the future of the network, strategic directions, and new forms of cooperation. Furthermore, she contributed to the programme for new conference participants and assisted in their introduction to the network's activities. Regarding her participation, she wrote: »At the Businet conference, together with Sven Cerulus from UCLL (Belgium), I led the Internationalisation@Home (I@H) working group. The meeting programme included a presentation of the Artemis European Alliances and RUN-EU European University, including brief learning opportunities, joint or double degrees, collaborative research, 'sandwich' programmes... Following this was a discussion on the opportunities and challenges of joint degrees and programmes. The entire meeting was extremely inspiring, as the participants took away many new ideas that will benefit all working group members in further developing international cooperation and innovative approaches in higher education.

DOBA University of Applied Sciences' participation in the conference reaffirms our commitment to international networking, the development of innovative pedagogical approaches, and an active role in the European higher education space.

We look forward to further opportunities for collaboration and innovation!