Mark your calendars! The next Virtual Exchange (VE) Week will run from May 12–16, 2025, daily at 2 PM (Helsinki time, UTC+3). The Call for student participants opens in March 2025.
The virtual exchange is a great opportunity to experiment interacting in an international environment – especially if you have considered applying for a traditional student exchange. Participating in the VE Week does not require an advanced knowledge base in natural sciences. More important is to be interested in climate change-related issues and workshopping in an international team. The VE Week is open to students of all fields coming from EU and EU Neighbourhood countries.
If you’re interested in moderating, you can register through the form here.
Note also; Students who participated in the October 2024 VE Week can apply to be moderators. Moderators may earn 3–5 credits for their role.
If you’re interested to participate in Virtual Exchange Week register here.
Schedule
All times are given in EET (i.e., in Finnish time)
1st Day 12 May 2025 (14:00 – 17:00, 3h online)
14:00 – Welcoming words
L1: Climate Change, Disasters, Carbon Neutrality and UN SDGs (Alexander Baklanov, UCPH)
L2: Climate Change Impact on Water Resources (Sergiy Snizhko & Olga Shevchenko, TSNUK)
L3: Nature hazards – Floods (Valeriya Ovcharuk, ONU)
L4: Impacts of Climate Change and Future Outlook (Hasmik Movsesyan, YSU)
L5: Climate Change: Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies (Hasmik Movsesyan, YSU)
L6: Artistic Research and Critical Thinking at the Intersection of Art, Science and Society
(Yvonne Billimore, BioArt Society)
L7: Utopian pedagogy (Antti Rajala, University of Neuchâtel)
16:00 – Breaking the students into small groups
Introduction round in groups & pre-task sharing (1 hour)
17:00 – End of the day
2nd Day 13 May 2025 (14:00 – 17:00, 3h online)
14:00 – Tool for Environment and Data Visualization | Past & Present | (Alexander Mahura, UH)
14:30 – Breaking into same small groups (1 moderator + 10 students in each group)
Working on Group Exercise “Climate Horizon”
17:00 – End of the day
3rd Day 14 May 2025 (14:00 – 17:00, 3h online)
14:00 – Tool for Socio-Economic Drivers of Climate Change | Past & Future | (Stefan Fronzek, SYKE)
14:30 – Breaking into same small groups (1 moderator + 10 students in each group)
Working on Group Exercise “Climate Horizon” – Mapping Past & Drafting Future
17:00 – End of the day
4th Day 15 May 2025 (14:00 – 17:00, 3h online)
14:00 – Tool for Climate Scenarios | Future | (Risto Makkonen, FMI/UH)
14:30 – Breaking into same small groups (1 moderator + 10 students in each group)
Working on Group Exercise “Climate Horizon”
17:00 – End of the day
5th Day 16 May 2025 (14:00 – 17:00, 3h online)
14:00 – Breaking into same small groups (1 moderator + 10 students in each group)
Finalizing work on Group Exercise “Climate Horizon”
Discussions on common Climate Horizon
Questionnaire with feedback about VE Week
16:00 – Wrap up & Closing the VE Week
17:00 – End of the virtual exchange week for students