“A great time”: Professional Staff welcomed to St Andrews
Over the summer months, staff at our strategic partner universities have been visiting St Andrews and exchanging ideas to take them into the new academic year. The Development Team have just hosted Padua’s Director of Development, and we will hear all about this in an upcoming blog. In June, we hosted a group of 9 professional staff from the University of Bonn as part of our annual English and Job Shadowing Week.The Week supports Bonn’s Internationalisation of Administration Excellence project, but it is also key to underpinning the overall success of the Bonn-St Andrews strategic partnership, ensuring we can collaboarate creatively within our institutional and national contexts.
Coordinated by the Global Office, Bonn staff undertook a professional English course with the International Education Institute in the morning, and met with St Andrews colleagues in similar areas of work in the afternoons. The Week allowed Bonn staff to put their language learning into practice, and gain confidence using English in a professional environment. Both Bonn and St Andrew staff shared best pratice and learned from one another. This year, staff from the Schools of Economics & Finance; Geography & Sustainable Development; and Modern Languages hosted professional staff from Bonn, as did CEED, Finance, Global Office, IE, Human Resources, Principal’s Office, RDBC and RIS.
Claire Sharp in Principal’s Office said, “I really enjoyed hosting and found it to be a really positive experience. It was so interesting to meet our colleagues from Bonn and learn about the similarities and differences in both our jobs and the Universities!”
Angela, from the Center of Economics and Neuroscience at Bonn, offered a perspective on her trip:
“First of all, I would like to say that I had a spectacular week in St Andrews! I had great expectations for this trip, as it was my first time in Scotland, a country that has always fascinated me and for which I have always felt a great sympathy.
From the moment we arrived everything went perfectly; we arrived on Sunday evening and had our first walk around the town and along the beach. From Monday we had our English lessons which were informative and fun. Our teacher Blair taught us the English language with a variety of media, games and active participation, so we always had something to do. My job shadowing was with the School of Economics & Finance which is located in a beautiful building with “breathtaking views” (this phrase we learned with Blair 😊). We were very well received by Torsten, Jessica, Laura, Andrew and other colleagues. There was an exchange of experiences about the way of working in our Institutes/Schools and in our universities in general. The exchange was easy and uncomplicated; we found similarities in some working ways and differences in others.
Overall, I had a great time in St Andrews. I hope to keep in touch and that we can develop projects together in the future.”
In a busy programme, some time was allocated for team-building and exploring. We held the first Bonn-St Andrews putting competition at the Himalayas, contested by 9 staff from Bonn and 3 from St Andrews. Despite being a novice, Conor from the Global Office lifted the budget Claret Jug, with Joana and Bettina coming in just behind him. Angela won the consolation prize, the St Andrews Thermal cup, which is happily sitting on her desk in Bonn. In a free afternoon, some participants also followed the sight-seeing recommendations of St Andrews staff, including the Coastal Path and swimming in Pittenweem tidal pool!
We are currently planning making plans for 2024, involving our strategic partner universities.
