English Course at Barcelona, Spain

On 08 – 12 November, 2021 assoc. prof. dr. Jurgita Kulaitienė, lecturer dr. Nijolė Vaitkevičienė and lecturer dr. Dovilė Levickienė of the Department of Plant Biology and Food Sciences from Vytautas Magnus University (VDU) Agriculture Academy, Faculty of Agronomy, were participating at the Staff Training Week- English Course at Barcelona, Spain.

In these courses, teaching and administrative staff from different countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Belgium) were attended.

With this Erasmus+ training visit teachers had the opportunity to work on oral communication skills in an authentic academic setting, attended courses in private language school in Barcelona. Sessions involved short lectures, specific learning tasks, group work, vocabulary building, and pronunciation exercises. Were placed with the right class and level to increase competence in the English language. As well as the visit has given an opportunity to get know their history, culture and people.

Project „RURALYOUTH” transnational partners meeting in Lithuania

The first face to face transnational meeting of partners in the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships for youth project “Empowering rural tourism through entreprenuership with youth” (acronym RURALYOUTH) finnaly happend. It took place in 23-24 of November and was hosted by Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania) adn organised by assoc. prof. Rasa Pranskūnienė from Bioeconomy Development Faculty together with Daiva Bukšnienė, director of Lukšiai Culture Centre, Šakiai district.

Meeting has been organised not only as face to face meeting, but as well as online meeting. The meeting was attended by representatives of 6 project partners, including: project coordinator: Eskisehir Osmangazi University (Turkey) and project partners: Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania), Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (Slovakia), University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn (Poland), Eskisehir Metropolitan Municipality (Turkey), ProEduca z.s. (Czech Republic). Face to face meeting partners coming fromꓽ Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania), Eskisehir Osmangazi University (Turkey), University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn (Poland), ProEduca z.s. (Czech Republic) had possibility to enjoy the first snow. During the meeting partners have shared their institutional presentations, as well the representants of consortium discussed the ongoing project activities and the training program being prepared, as well as worked on a plan for future project activities.

The project, which has a 24 month implementation period, forms a lifelong education system for tourism students, who would like to be the entrepreneurs in rural areas. The project creates actions to improve knowledge of agricultural, touristic, rural, cultural and entrepreneurship among young people and will prevent miss-match for tourism students. With this project, which was formed with 6 partners, it was aimed to support the development of rural areas, to support lifelong learning, to increase awareness of the nationality through education and technology-based distance education model and to develop action plans in line with the European Youth Strategy.

We are very happy and especially grateful to Lukšiai Culture Centre, hotel „Zyplių dvaro oficina“, restoran „Kuchmistrai” and Šakiai district Lukšiai municipality for the memorable experiences and possibility to have this meeting at Zypliai Manor.

A Visit to the University of Palermo (UNIPA)

Assoc. prof. dr. Anželika Dautartė (Dept. of Environment and Ecology, Faculty of Forest Sciences and Ecology) visited the University of Palermo (UNIPA) in Italy from November 9^th to 11^th, 2021, as part of the Erasmus+ teaching program. Agricultural activity’s influence on the environment, eutrophication of water bodies, changes in biodiversity, and their prospects were discussed at the PhD degree Fall seminars “Biodiversity in Agriculture and Forestry” during the teaching visit. With interested students and professors, the opportunities for exchanges, studies, and internships at VMU Agriculture Academy were discussed. On behalf of the departmental Erasmus+ coordinator, dr. Antonio Comparetti, the prospective research collaborations, and ways to improve scientific collaborations with staff members of the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Forestry Sciences was explored.

The University of Palermo (UNIPA) is a consolidated cultural, scientific, and teaching presence in central-western Sicily. Its 5 Schools and 20 Departments cover the most important domains of contemporary scientific and technological knowledge. The researchers study every day to find new solution to the questions posed by nature, science and society. From Information Technology to Biology, from Mathematics to Medicine, to Social Sciences and Preservation of Cultural Heritage, the University works to make its contribution of innovation and progress to the international scientific community and the world of production.

4th meeting of the Smartrural project

Assoc. prof. dr. Rasa Pranskūnienė and assoc. prof. dr. Aušra Rūtelionė from Bioeconomy Development Faculty (Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania) have attended the face to face meeting of partners in the Erasmus + KA203 “SMARTRURAL” project at Pegaso University, Italy. Thus, 4th meeting of the SMARTRURAL project (Erasmus + KA203 project – Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education Towards smart rural tourism development in Europe) took place on 3rd and 4th of November 2021 in Naples. It was hosted by the University Pegaso (Italy). Partners from 7 academic units in Europe came together to summarize the project activities such as online course, best practices, promotion and dissemination works.

There was also a Multipier Event for an international audience, hosted by colleagues from Pegaso University on 4th of November 2021. The next Multiplier Events disseminating the project and promoting the course on the Moodle platform will take place in partner countries, Spain, Poland, Turkey, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia at the end of November and in December 2021.

The Student Survey “Teaching and Learning Evaluation” is Underway

The University has launched the student survey Teaching and learning evaluation in 2021 autumn semester. In the end of each semester all the students of bachelor, master, integrated and professional studies are invited to share an opinion about teachers and their own work during the semester study courses. The survey is anonymous!
More information.

MIENAT project meeting and training days in Porto, Portugal

Assoc. prof. dr. Rasa Pranskūnienė and assoc. prof. dr. Anastasija Novikova from Bioeconomy Development Faculty (Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania) have attended the face to face meeting of partners in the Erasmus + KA203 project – Erasmus+ MIENAT Strategic Partnership in Higher Education project “Methodology of Interpretation of European Nature Heritage in Tourism” at Porto university, Portugal from 13^th to 18^th of September 2021. The meeting was attended by representatives of partner universities, including: Porto University (Portugal), Universidad Europea, Madrid (Spain). Munster Technological University (Ireland), Alexandru Ioan Cuza University (Romania), Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania), and Prague University of Economics and Business (Czech Republic). The representatives of the Fachhochschule des Mittelstands (Germany), FH Burgenland (Austria) were connected online.

The project, which has a 36-month implementation period. The main objectives of the project are to prepare materials for innovations in the field of education on the topic of “Experiencing Nature Tourism” and to create new, modern, didactic materials.

The meeting, was held as Training Days event (short-term joint staff training event) at School of Economics and Management, Porto University (port. Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto), where partners of the project presented natural heritage and methodology of its interpretation, shared the examples of good practices. During the workshops there were held presentations, piloting, evaluation of prepared didactic materials. Each partner presented the draft of his part of the e-book chapter, as well as presented the idea of chosen case studies, discussed the didactical concepts. Meeting participants had possibility to visit on – site examples of good practices in |Portugal. During the meeting, it was also agreed that the next meeting would take place in Vytautas Magnus Univertsity, in Lithuania.

Training Days at the university in Porto gave us great opportunity to see and learn and enjoy so much in such a short time! We became familiar with the university and beauties of Porto region; we saw different nature attractions and experienced various ways of their interpretation. We believe the Training Days and stay in Portugal gave us a great deal of new experience and enabled us to make another step in our project.

Apply now: Erasmus+ Traineeship Competition

A competition is open for Erasmus+ student or recent graduate traineeship grants. Application deadline is the 30th of November, 2021.

The placement period is from 2 to 6 months. Recent graduate traineeship must end – in a year after graduation.

Selection

All VMU fulltime degree students who have not used more than 10 months of their Erasmus mobility (study / traineeship) period are eligible for the Erasmus grant.

More information is available here.

Visit of Teachers of VMU Agriculture academy to polytechnic institute of Beja (Portugal)

The teachers of Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy assoc. prof. dr. Midona Dapkienė (Department of Water Engineering, Faculty of Engineering), prof. dr. Laima Česonienė and assoc. prof. dr. Daiva Šileikienė (Department of Environment and Ecology, Faculty of Forest Sciences and Ecology) visited Polytechnic Institute of Beja (Portugal) according to Erasmus+ Mobility agreement on October 12th to 15th 2021.

The Polytechnic Institute of Beja (IPBeja) is a professional and research oriented public higher education institution, located in the south of Portugal, in the region of Alentejo.
IPBeja is made up of four Schools – the School of Agriculture, the School of Education, the School of Technology and Management and the School of Health, with a range of more than 30 courses on offer. The Institute has more than 2000 students, enrolled in both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and other professional oriented post-graduate programmes.

The representatives of VMU Agriculture Academy gave the lectures for bachelor and master students in the field of surface water quality, wastewater treatment and its reuse for irrigation, environmental policy and Green Deal. They also presented the oral communications on Environmental Engineering Seminar in Agrarian School of IPBeja. Prof. Laima Česonienė presented the assessment of the impact of hydropower plants on the ecological status indicators of water bodies in Lithuania. Assoc. prof. Midona Dapkienė shared experiences on wastewater treatment in rural areas of Baltic Sea region. Assoc. prof. Daiva Šileikienė presented an analysis of the main principles of organic agriculture – health, ecology, fairness and care.

The teachers had an opportunity to familiarize with the study process and reasearch at IPBeja as well as to discuss the opportunities of Erasmus Mundus project.

10th International Scientific Conference ‘Rural Development 2021: Challenges for Sustainable Bioeconomy and Climate Change’

Organizers and supporters

The visit in university of Palermo

Assoc. professor dr. Jurgita Kulaitienė and lecturer dr. Dovilė Levickienė (Institute of Agriculture and Food Science, Faculty of Agronomy) visited the University of Palermo (UNIPA) the Department of Agricultural, Food and Forest Sciences in Palermo, Italy on 15–17 June 2021 under the Erasmus+ staff mobility for training.

Teachers got acquainted with the Palermo higher education system, acquired knowledge and competence in area of modern analytical methods which are used to assess the storage and quality of the raw materials.

The visit has given an opportunity for exchanging the ideas on future education and research cooperation’s, improving the academic relations between relevant institutions of both universities in the academic and scientific field.