I am writing this entry in the lounge at Thessaloniki-Macedonia Airport in Greece.  Rebecca Hughes, the new PVC International, and I have just been on a short visit to introduce Rebecca to Sheffield’s International Faculty – City College.  We have had an intensive programme, meeting with the academic staff of all the departments there, having discussions with a number of professional services support staff, and visiting the facilities – particularly in City’s relatively new premises modelled on the University’s Information Commons.  We have also been to the South-East European Research Centre and met staff there.  We have planned the visit to the College by the Vice-Chancellor and a senior group next month – to include the President and International Officer of the Students’ Union as well as colleagues from Sheffield’s Management School.

Part of the VC’s visit will involve the launch of the International Faculty’s Executive MBA programme in Istanbul.  I am old enough to remember a time when such a thing would have been unthinkable – when the idea of a Greek private college doing anything in Turkey would have been completely out of the question because of the tension between the two countries, with their armed gunboats from both sides patrolling the waters between some of the Greek islands and the Turkish mainland.  The launch of a Sheffield EMBA programme in Istanbul next month, delivered by City College, will therefore be of enormous significance. It will be a unique venture – but then there are many aspects about the City College operation that are very distinctive.

The aspect I want to pick on here is the role of education in bringing together previously antagonistic peoples.  That will be the case next month in Istanbul.  But I want to highlight the discussion Rebecca and I had yesterday afternoon with a group of 11 students of City – drawn from a mix of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.  Some had studied at City before, others had come from previous study elsewhere (including one MBA student who already had bachelors and masters degree from Sussex and a PhD from Imperial College).  But they also came from a variety of countries within the Balkan region and beyond – Greece itself, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Serbia and Kosovo.   You don’t need to be anywhere as old as me to remember a time when Serbians and Kosovans were at war with each other. I noticed that the two students from those countries were sitting next to each other and supporting each other in their gestures.  I commented on this to one of them afterwards – a Serbian girl who is now destined for a Masters programme at Amsterdam.  She said that all that stuff belongs in the past for young people like her.  Education has brought people of her generation together.  Another student commented that he had come to the college with all the preconceptions of his background and place of origin, but that the college had taught him something new – and not just his academic subject.  It had taught him to see people from other origins and cultures in a much more positive light. “It helps you get your mind opened”, he said.  And another commented “A university is a racism killer.”  What a fantastic accolade for Sheffield and City for fostering such a view within the complex political and ethnic rivalries of the Balkans.  As Rebecca commented to me afterwards, the whole experience of meeting this group of students, who clearly formed an integrated and supportive community among themselves, was rather moving.  That’s not a word we reach for every day.

 

(I tried to upload this whilst changing planes in Munich Airport later on Friday, but uSpace was not being co-operative.  Apologies for the late deluvery of the blog.)