From 17 to 20 June, a seminar for representatives of international departments of partner universities was held at GSOM SPbU. This year participants discussed the development of international mobility, summer schools and joint programs. Elena Orlova, Head of Languages for Academic and Business Communication Department, took part in this event and told colleagues about working with demanding international students.

According to Elena Orlova, students who come on exchange to GSOM SPbU need: more feedback, more challenging and creative assignments, more time to enable learning, more specific, case-oriented assignments and extensive involvement of CPs and Alumni.

Associate professor cited three examples from her own practice and explained the difficulties, which professors face while working with highly motivated students. Elena Orlova teaches Business Communication Skills Seminar: Crisis communication for CEMS students. Communication for better ethics decision-making. She thinks that to make the course successful it is necessary to analyze students’ CVs and held a pre-course questionnaire to learn students’ expectations, strengths and weaknesses, obtain extra insights about potential risks and identify dominating communicators.

At the end of her presentation Elena Orlova identified three basic rules for working with CEMS students. First, professor should learn how to collaborate in and beyond faculty borders. Secondly, it is important to be prepared that there will always be a student in the classroom with better expertise. Thirdly, it is necessary to be ready to accept a student with strong skepticism, accept the risk and stand one’s ground.

In total, 23 representatives of different universities took part in the seminar. Staff Training Week involves the discussion of the most successful practices and ideas in the field of incoming and outgoing academic mobility, as well as the exchange of experience in the field of international cooperation. Participants shared information about admission of foreign applicants, exchange programs and internationalization of scientific research.