**Cultural Diversity**

An increasing international migration, with a growing welfare gap, contributes to new challenges and demands for citizens and social and welfare workers more specifically. A transnational framework captures the cultural diversity in a globalized world. This course emphasizes cultural diversity within welfare systems and intercultural practices, by addressing families separated by distance and national borders, which forces them to negotiate and maintain family relations with multiple societies across borders. The course provides insight into transnationalism, migration and return migration.

Transcript of Records is an official document issued by your home university. It specifies the name of the institution, the academic programme you are enrolled in, the list of courses taken up until the current period, the exams or tests you passed, the grades and the credits you earned. 

Transcript of Records

University of Stavanger

Cultural Diversity

The course seeks to facilitate participants to reflect upon intercultural practices in diverse contexts

Critical and innovative thinking

Inter-personal skills

Global citizenship

## The Challenge

Learners will work together to acquire skills and competencies related to the physiopathological basis of the reproductive system, infertility, and influence of lifestyle on reproductive health. The ultimate goal is to integrate and apply this knowledge in identifying and solving real problems in the area through the implementation of multicultural working groups. During this challenge, priority will be given to innovative and experimental teaching models, such as challenge-based in a blended learning approach that combines virtual and face-to-face mobility

## Impact

The participants will develop cross-cutting and transdisciplinary knowledge in reproductive health lifestyle. This challenge will also promote new forms of international mobility that allow an increase in the number of individuals with an international mobility experience in higher education, while also promoting collaborative and cooperative work skills through the experience of active teaching and learning methodologies. This intensive blended program is aligned with the strategic development plan of the Department of Medical Sciences, within the scope of its internationalization policy, as well as with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, namely for Good Health and Well-being (Goal 3), Quality Education (Goal 4), Gender Equality (Goal 5), and Reduced Inequalities (Goal 10).

CV (Curriculum Vitae) is a document that summarizes your educational and professional history. It must provide a detailed overview of your academic and work experience, skills, achievements, and qualifications.

Motivation letter is a personal statement and it might include a brief introduction of yourself, explanation why are you interested in the learning opportunity you are applying to, any relevant experience or skills that you have, your goals and how this opportunity will help you achieve them, This document should not be more than 400 words.

Motivation Letter

University of Aveiro

Lifestyle Influence on Reproductive Health

Resilient communities

This course focuses on sustainable entrepreneurship. We define sustainable entrepreneurship as generating social, environmental, and commercial value that will address the grand challenges that world society faces today. The course examines the factors that promote entrepreneurial success in new business ventures, and students will gain knowledge on how to start a business. This includes idea generation and evaluation, industry and potential markets analysis, potential risks identification, crafting solid value propositions, and creating a valid business model for the new business. We will utilize a challenge-based approach in three stages: engage, investigate and act stages. The course is supplemented by an online platform where students get access to videos and podcasts 24/7. Through the course, students will get an opportunity to connect with a student incubator in Stavanger and participate in European venture creation competitions for students.

Students will have two 2-days workshops on campus in Stavanger, where they will be introduced to CBL methods, They also would work in teams blended with local students and would have to identify ideas, collect data on relevant topics and propose a solution. They will utilize active learning approaches and Challenge based learning in this course.  

**Compulsory activities:**  

- Participation in two physical workshops, each 2-day length, in Stavanger

- Participation in the group work (online)

- Delivery of the draft of the business plan

Sustainable entrepreneurship

From sustainability-oriented idea to solution

Circular economy

Entrepreneurship, technology and innovation

This study module aims at enhancing cultural awareness as a key skill in Early Childhood setting.  

Globalization has the last decades turned national and local communities into migrant societies. ECEC is an institution in which children, guardians, parents, and staff from various backgrounds and with multiple belongings meet. This gives ECEC a key role in creating inclusion and belonging in dynamic communities influenced by local and global concerns.

The course will enrich students’ knowledge and skills for leading and guiding processes of creating belonging in children’s groups, cooperating with a diverse group of parents/guardians, finding practical, enjoyable, and efficient ways of working as professional staff requires high level of intercultural competence.

Critical Cultural Awareness in Migration societies

Early Childhood Education and Care

The students will work on two challenges in separate workshops. The workshops will be held from 15. to 19. April. The challenge are sponsored by the industry:  
  
- Sustainable materials for ocean renewable energy systems (sponsored by Flex2Power AS)  
  
- Conflict-free development of large construction yards for offshore wind (Sponsored by Energy Innovation AS  

A specific method is used in the workshops: Challenge Based Learning (CBL). 

(CBL) has three distinct phases, Engage, Investigate and Act. The workshop begins with the Engage Phase which moves from the Big Idea (green transition in offshore) to a concrete and actionable challenge by using the essential questioning process (Swiden, 2013).  
Once this has been decided upon, participants can then proceed to the Investigate phase. Here, participants develop guiding questions to gain the knowledge needed to develop a solution to the challenge. Guiding questions continue to emerge throughout the challenge (Nichols et al., 2016). These could be gathering relevant data for their challenge. A problem-solving technique for this stage such as fishing techniques will also be presented. By these tool participants will understand problems in a more holistic and in-depth way and be enabled to structure their investigations. Participants will then develop their own guiding questions and resources to better understand their challenge. The learnings from this phase provides a foundation for the eventual identification of potential solutions to the challenge (Nichols et al., 2016).

In the Act stage a technique to develop potential solutions will be presented. This includes the ‘six thinking hats’ technique which encourages each participant to take a different role for developing solutions and help choose the best solution. These roles can include thinking more innovatively, or more cautiously, in a more risk-averse manner or in a more bold and experimental way. This is a key part of CBL as it demonstrates how participants do not have fixed roles and are able to change their roles to have different perspectives on their challenges. Solutions should be evidence-based and implemented with an ‘authentic’ (real-life) audience. They should evaluate the effectiveness of the solution and make adjustments, which will deepen their subject area knowledge (Nichols et al., 2016). Within each of the phases there are opportunities for mini-investigation cycles and if necessary, a return to an earlier phase.

Green Transition in Offshore Wind

Reduce the envioronmental footprint of ocean renewable systems

Energy and sustainability

**More information**

[Click here for more information regarding content, exam, method of work and learning outcome](https://www.uis.no/en/course/PHD603_1)

**Exam**

Group work and indivdual essays 

**Form of assessment                Weight         Marks**

Group work                               1/2                  Passed / Not Passed

Indivdual essays                        1/2                  Passed / Not Passed

Mock grant application text and 5-minute bid pitch as well as submission of group review of a chosen set of mandatory and recommended course texts (50%; group work);

and individual reflective essays of 1,500 words each both pre- and post-course set to different templates (50%).

Both elements will be marked as Pass/Fail.

**Coursework requirements**

Corresponding to the methods of work above, each candidate will allocate the following time towards these mandatory course activities and deliverables for credits:

- 37 hours - pre-course time allocation for mandatory readings (1,095 pages)
- 20 hours - pre-course preparation of 1,500 word description of own PhD project using a template adapted to the double diamong and design thinking
- 37 hours - participation in week-long course (5 full working days)
- 25 hours - group work to write a 3,000 word joint review essay engaging with 6-8 of the mandatory and recommended course texts **due two weeks after the course**
- 25 hours - post-course submission of a critically reflective 1,500 word essay on the concept of design thinking based on the course literature in relation to own PhD project, **due one month after course** conclusion to earn the credits.

Questions about the content: 

Professor Rune Todnem By : rune.t.by@uis.no

Design thinking for transdisciplinary research

Enabling silo busters to make a difference through working together with other PhD candidates across subject areas.

Intra-personal skills

Innovation is increasingly important for the development and competitiveness of firms and to deliver social as well as economic va lues for societies. Today's most successful firms compete mainly through innovation, whether in the form of continuous development of new products, improvement of processes or organizational forms, or identification of new markets. In order to survive in the knowledge economy, firms need strategies for what kind of innovations to pursue and how to promote innovation by designing the necessary preconditions. In this context, knowledge, and understanding of innovation is an important assets. Additionally, innovations increasingly should contribute to generating social and environmental values, addressing Grand Social Challenges. Through this course, students will develop a critical perspective of the firm strategies for the management of the innovation process. Through investigation of the innovation processes in real private or public organizations during the course, students will acquire the skills to assist in managing the firm innovation process in a responsible way. Students enrolled in this course have the opportunity to work with local firms. 

**Contents**

The course will take up the following topics:

- Disruptive innovation
- Exploring innovation space
- lnnovation as a process
- Sources of innovaion
- Dynamic capabilities
- lnnovation strategy
- Lean for innovation
- lnnovation in public organizations
- Sustainable innovation
- Gate stage process, agile model of innovation
- Open innovation

Business Development and Innovation

Sustainable Business Develeopment and Innovation: The Firm Perspective

Media and information literacy

**Course description**

We are living in a time of energy innovation: growing need for energy supply, energy (in)security, changing markets, climate change and other driving forces increase the need for new technological solutions. The resulting advances affect patterns of wealth, trade, power, and politics worldwide. These processes have an important international dimension and cannot be understood without taking international affairs into consideration. In this course, we study energy innovation from this international point of view. State involvement in energy innovation is an important starting point in that regard. Industrialised as well as upcoming countries are currently in a race for yielding the benefits of developing new energy technologies. Other countries struggle for their place in the future world of energy. By studying the race for energy innovation, the course aims at shedding a new light at the global energy transition. This includes the potential of international agreements such as Paris and organisations such as IRENA to distribute the benefits of energy innovation in a more just way. The module includes guest lectures from leading experts across Europe. 

**The challenge**

The topics of energy, innovation, and geopolitics are highly prominent in the academic literature. The concept of energy transition is central in that regard: it captures changes in the overall energy system, from one particular fuel source or technology to another. Numerous papers are dealing with these issues, many new papers are being published almost daily. Furthermore, the topic is becoming more and more prominent on the curricula of universities across Europe and worldwide.  

Energy innovation is an important aspect of today’s energy sector. Almost daily, we hear about the introduction of new processes, methods or devices that somehow improve how energy is being generated, transmitted or used. Classic economic theory assumes that these novelties are produced by the dynamics inherent to the capitalist, private economy. In that view, state intervention to change the overall energy system works against the progress (that is innovation). 

However, the energy sector is unique in a sense that state involvement – one way or the other – is very strong. The reasons for this can be found at the international level. The energy sector is of fundamental importance for the functioning of the economy; the state therefore has a high interest to ensure energy supply. Moreover, the state has an interest in keeping its national economy competetive. The energy sector is an important economic sector in many countries. State involvement is therefore very high.  

In short: energy innovation needs to be understood in relation to state policy, not least policy in response to pressures coming from the international level. The motives behind the promotion of energy innovation by the state (for example through science parks, university research projects, subsidies, or public private partnerships etc.) are, however, not mecessarily directly apparent. With this challenge, we want to shed light on the connection between energy innovation, state policy, and international affairs. 

**Exam information**

Your task will be to identify a significant case of energy innovation in your area (city or region) and to find information material about it (for example websites, brochures, policy documents, interviews, or surveys sent by email). Furthermore, you will describe this case by finding answers to the following questions:  

What are the motivations and/or driving forces behind this case of energy innovation? 

Is this a case of private enterprise or is the state involved in any way? 

If the state is involved, in what form does it take part? 

Why is the state involved? 

Does the information material about the case refer to the national economy? 

Does your case include a form of international cooperation? 

In the exam (short essay), you will discuss the information that you have collected against some of the contents of the course. This must also be presented at the end of the course.

Energy Innovation Across the Globe

Study module and a practical challenge on energy innovation worldwide

Whether in your studies, a real-life (ECIU) challenge or in your future career, the need to develop your intercultural competences and become able to work with anyone and anywhere in the world is becoming more and more important. Being connected with other countries and other cultures can provide you with wonderful opportunities for collaboration and new and refreshing insights. To accommodate such creative collaboration, it is important to make sure you have the right tools for effective teamwork in multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary groups. With this course, you will gain practical insights into intercultural competences by creating your own Citizen Science project! During this micro-module, you will learn to better understand and work within diverse groups, how to improve on your communicative skills and create an effective team, and how you can apply and present your solutions in a broad variety of contexts. 

For more information and the latest updates, check out [https://www.utwente.nl/en/intercultural-competences/](https://www.utwente.nl/en/intercultural-competences/)

Member university

University of Stavanger

Member university

University of Stavanger

Learning opportunities of University of Stavanger