Deep dive into another culture thanks to the ATHENS week

The first ATHENS session of this year allows more than 1200 students from all over Europe to follow a high quality course at one of the prestigious partner universities. They had the choice between a broad variety of topics, from Extrem Value Modelisation at Mines Paris - PSL to Company Crisis at the Czech Technical University to Green and Liveable Cities at Delft University of Technology. Additionally to the participation in the courses, the students of the ATHENS week have the chance to travel, to dive into another European culture and to meet their peers from all over the continent (and beyond).

In total, almost 1400 students applied and had to choose from 58 courses proposed by one of the following 14 European Higher Education Institutions:

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki,
Arts et Métiers,
Budapest University of Technology and Economics,
Czech Technical University in Prague,
Istanbul Technical University,
KU Leuven,
Mines Paris - PSL,
Norwegian University of Science and Technology,
Politecnico di Milano,
Delft University of Technology,
Technische Universität München,
University Politehnica of Bucharest,
Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, and
Warsaw University of Technology.

During the last session, the ATHENS network proposed for the first time a course in the format of a blended intensive programme (BIP). These courses combine a physical mobility with a virtual component under the ERASMUS+ programme. In the ongoing session, the ATHENS partners propose five BIPs. The benefits for the students are threefold: They spent more time to study the subject of the course than during the classic ATHENS week, they learn to work together on-site as well as online, which is a very important skill nowadays, and they receive Erasmus funding for the mobility period. In total, 107 students from 13 ATHENS partners follow a BIP and benefit from this experience.

More than 140 international students from the European ATHENS partners came to Paris to follow a course at Art et Métiers or at Mines Paris - PSL. As usual, the welcome session took place in the premises of Mines Paris - PSL, right next to the Jardin du Luxembourg. The welcome session represents the first opportunity during this week to meet other international participants, and to get some insights on the ATHENS network and ParisTech. On Sunday, the students discovered the most emblematic places of the French capital, and from Monday to Friday, the focus lies on the courses. They travel back home on Saturday, with a lot of new experiences and knowledge on board.

On Monday, Matthieu Mazière, Dean of Studies of the engineering cycle at Mines Paris, to introduced the courses delivered by his school: “It is a pleasure to see so many young bright minds come together, get in touch, talk about where they come from and the courses they are going to follow during the next week. At Mines Paris, we offer six courses during the March session, and all the professors involved genuinely enjoy teaching during the ATHENS week. It is very interesting to have participants from different backgrounds and study programmes in the same class, it broadens the perspective”.

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