The programme is currently on hold while we seek financial resources to expand this popular programme. We will notify potential participants about any change in the programme status.

The EFER Bologna Faculty Exchange Programme, launched in the 2007/2008 academic year, aims to enable the exchange of at least 200 entrepreneurship professors from 100 European universities over a three-year period.  EFER faculty participants will conduct a one-week exchange with another faculty member at a different institution in a different country.  At least three days of this exchange will include in-class instruction with flexibility in terms of other presentations, projects, and student interaction.  Following the exchange, both professors are required to document their experience by submitting a report to EFER with the details of the exchange, feedback, and key learning points, outlining any plans for joint research or projects between participants.

Objectives:
As European universities strive to introduce common approaches and standards in higher education to drive the Bologna process forward, internationalization and cross-border exposure of universities, faculty, and students is becoming increasingly important.  In this context, opportunities for exchange, dialogue, and joint activities between European professors are especially valuable.  In no other field is exchange between faculty more necessary than in the ever-changing and fast-moving field of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial management, as Europe seeks to encourage the development and growth of new enterprises and employment across EU member countries. 

Meanwhile, recent EFER research has shown that 90% of European entrepreneurship faculty members are based in their home countries, with less than 20% spending time teaching abroad.  Nationally focused institutions and professors are neither well positioned to enhance the internationalization of curricula and programmes, nor to develop students’ understanding of cross-border business practices needed to prepare entrepreneurs and firms to compete in the 21st century.  The EFER Bologna Faculty Exchange Programme enables faculty to exchange ideas, share teaching methods, and truly internationalize European entrepreneurship courses to help breed European gazelles. 

Progress to Date

During the 2007-2008 academic year, the pilot programme launched with 24 participants from 16 countries in total. The countries/university matches included:

IESE (Spain) – University of Cambridge (UK)
INSEAD (France) – University of Bremen (Germany)
IEDC-BLED (Slovenia) – University of Limerick (Ireland)
SSE St. Petersburg (Russia) – ESCP-EAP (France)
EM Lyon (France) – International Academy of Business (Kazakhstan)
Norwegian School of Economics and Business (Norway) – Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal)
University of Gdansk (Poland) – Griffith College Dublin (Ireland)
TU Delft (Netherlands) – Technical University of Munich (Germany)
Wuppertal (Germany) – Riga Business School (Latvia)
Academy of Economic Studies (Romania) – York Management School (UK)
University of Limerick (Ireland) – St. Petersburg St. University (Russia)
Slovak University of Technology (Slovakia) – University of Leiden (Netherlands)

Testimonials

“The exchange faculty programme gives us a lot of synergy and creates new benefits and values from available resources. It opens the door for new ideas and opportunities for entrepreneurship in different countries.”
Professor Ludmila Murgulets, StockholmSchool of Economics, St. Petersburg, Russia

We both can warmly and intensely recommend that such an exchange programme be performed by as many colleagues as possible: it will strengthen even more our fantastic, rich and diverse European network of entrepreneurship faculty, created thanks to EFER and the HBS summer colloquia. An unbelievable number of activities will follow from -  and be inspired by -  this mutual visit to two different entrepreneurship environments, in learning; teaching; research, business connections, etc.etc. perhaps even business projects, who knows. Many thanks for the opportunity .
Professor Jacqueline Fendt, ESCP-EAP, France

"Discussing entrepreneurship with young and bright foreign students is an experience never to forget. EFER enriches your life!"
Professor Jan Adriaanse, University of Leiden, Netherlands

“It was a very useful and inspiring experience with great potential to pass on and disseminate the Dutch experience in entrepreneurship in Slovakia and vice versa.”
Professor Marian Zajko, SlovakUniversity of Technology (Slovakia)

“The exchange was an excellent, practical, hands-on, follow-up experience to what I learned at HarvardBusinessSchool during the EECPCL programme. Patrick and I literally had our Harvard notes with us, which we discussed, compared and applied each day of class. We would remember and repeat quotations from the Harvard professors and Bert, with big smiles on our faces, i.e., ‘…life is one big cold call’, ‘learn, earn, and return’, etc. I could feel that the students felt our interest and enthusiasm in them and in what we were doing, (because we had this wonderful framework), hence a tremendous amount of learning took place. This was the result of the EECPCL combined with the exchange programme.”
Professor Juris Ulmanis, Riga Business School, Latvia

“The EFER Bologna Exchange programme was a very useful opportunity for me to learn and share international experience on Entrepreneurship research and development in different countries. I learned a lot from my colleagues at EM Lyon Business School and hope that I contributed some knowledge from my Central Asian experience on entrepreneurship research and development that is useful for them. I am very grateful to EFER for giving me a chance to participate in EFER Bologna Exchange Programme.”
Professor Durbek Mukhamedov, International Academy of Business, Kazakhstan