Dr Boglárka Koller, the vice-rector for international affairs, welcomed Prof Foteini Asderaki, Professor of European Integration Theory and European Educational Policy at the Department of International and European Studies, University of Piraeus. The reason for the meeting was that both the vice-rector Koller and professor Asderaki hold the title of Jean Monnet Chair, so they are part of the Jean Monnet European scientific network. The Jean Monnet Chair application is open to internationally renowned university professors with outstanding knowledge who specialize in teaching European studies.
Besides holding the Jean Monnet Chair on European Union Policies in Education, Training, Research, and Innovation since 2016, professor Asderaki is the Director of the Laboratory of Education Policy, Research, Development and Interuniversity Cooperation (ERDIC). She is also the director of the Bologna Resource Center and the co-director of the Regional Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence (East-Med Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence-EXCELEM).
During the conversation, both parties presented their respective projects. Quickly finding common ground, the topic of the meeting swiftly shifted towards a theme to which both parties are completely comfortable with: European Studies. Besides EU-centric topics, the parties found more common interests: they expressed their will to deepen the already well-established cooperation between the two institutions. A great example of this is that in the framework of the Ludovika Fellowship programme, Nikolaos Charalampopoulos, a scholar of the University of Piraeus had spent three months here in Budapest, giving lectures to the students of UPS about political violence and terrorism.
Text and Photo: International Office