Last year the Faculty of Political Science signed a collaborative contract with the University of Bratislava in Slovakia. The aim of the project is to accelerate the transfer of knowledge and best practices between Slovakia and Iceland in small state studies, to facilitate contributions and exchanges of scientific information between the parties. This objective is primarily to be reached by mobility of highly qualified experts. Thus the Faculty of Political Sciences received four academics from the University of Economics in Bratislava ; Denisa Čiderová, Klaudia Pyteľová, Martin Grešš og Tomáš Dudáš, last month. This is the second visit from academics at the University of Economics in Bratislava.
During their stay, Denisa Čiderová, Klaudia Pyteľová, Martin Grešš og Tomáš Dudáš, held lectures in three courses at the Faculty of Political Sciences. Pyteľová talked about Slovac politics in Comparative Politics whereas Dudáš discussed the way to democracy in the small state Slovak Republic in Democracy, Sovergnty and the Nation State in the 21st Century. Čiderová and Grešš discussed ways for the Slovac Republic for influence within the European Union in Current Challenges in European Integration. Grešš says that “the main possibilities for a voice of a small state are probably through formal structure of the EU; especially the presidency of the Council (as is the case of Slovakia in the second half of 2016). Any state becomes more visible within the EU MS media, which may help to improve its position.”
This project benefits students as well, as they will have access to different points-of-view from foreign experts and increase their intercultural awareness. Furthermore, the faculty’s academic staff will create academic relations with their peers in small states studies with a varied academic background. As Martin Grešš confirmed after his visit to the University of Iceland; “the principal benefit of this project is establishing cooperation between our faculties, meeting new people and colleagues from abroad to discuss and share ideas.“ Three lecturers from the Faculty of Political Science with thus visit the University of Economics in Bratislava this autumn.
The project is co-financed by the EEA grants and from the state budget of the Slovak Republic in framework of the EEA Scholarship Programme Slovakia.