What our past participants over the past couple of years say about their Berlin Summer School experience….

Andrzej Jaszczuk

Director of the Rector’s Office, SGH Warsaw School of Economics

The Summer School proved to be an excellent experience that provided not only interesting but also highly valuable knowledge for my work in academia. One of the most significant aspects was the analysis of intriguing case studies, which offered practical insights directly applicable to my professional role.

Undoubtedly, one of the major strengths of the Summer School was the opportunity to interact and learn from outstanding experts in the field. Collaboration was incredibly fruitful, and the diversity of experiences and perspectives among participants added tremendous value to our education.

I would like to commend the excellent organisation of the Summer School. Registration, scheduling, and session execution were top-notch, significantly contributing to our satisfying and smooth learning experience.

In summary, the HUMANE Summer School exceeded my expectations and was a unique experience. I left it not only with an expanded knowledge base but also with new contacts that I hope to maintain in the future.

My heartfelt thanks to the entire HUMANE team for creating this incredible opportunity for learning and growth.

Josic Maignan

Deputy Head of Administration, University of Rennes

The Summer School was a great opportunity for me to get away from my day-to-day work and change my perspective on managing change in higher education and research.

I really appreciated the content, the variety of experiences and I enjoyed sharing experiences and points of view with colleagues from universities across Europe.

The fact that we alternated phases of learning content and phases of group production is of real educational interest. Working on concrete cases inspired by real situations was a very good thing.

The mix of groups, both in terms of professional fields and countries of origin, was a great experience of transnational and multicultural work.

The excellent organisation, as well as the importance given to informal and collective moments, particularly during the discovery of the city of Berlin, add to the excellence of this program. It was also a good opportunity to meet some wonderful people!

Massimo Cagnin

Technical Management Head, University of Padova

“The week in which I attended HUMANE Berlin Summer School 2022 was perfect: good location, nice weather, wonderful colleagues, and a fantastic organisation with great attention to details.

Despite being “under pressure”, at the same time, I received a lot of positive energy from the group and in particular from the HUMANE organisers. It was interesting and inspiring to realise how sharing problems and solutions is so useful to me and to my university.

Working on real cases in different teams and comparing the results in role play sessions was very challenging but rewarding. The free time available was not so much but the organisers were brilliant in programming splendid tours of the city and taking us to excellent restaurants.

I would like to say a big “Grazie 1000 – thank you very much” for the great opportunity I had and without doubt I will recommend the experience to my colleagues.”

Frédérique Perrein

Head of Faculty Administration, Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Luxembourg

“The Summer School in Berlin was terrific! Berlin is such a nice city, and the organisation of the Summer School was perfect. No need to say that the sunny weather was the cherry on the cake of this wonderful week.

More seriously, it was amazing to work in teams on existing transformation cases, and being challenged to think how it could have been done differently. It was so enriching to learn from the actors of the different institutions, and also from my peers in the team.

Discussions and views from colleagues from all over Europe was a nice experience, and it was interesting to see the different but similar challenges that my colleagues face just like me!

On top of the discussions, key note talks were of highest quality and brought a lot of inspiring content to be used in my day to day work.“

Kelly Van Hoorebeeck

Head of Student Information & Student Life, VUB

“Participating in the Summer School in Berlin was intense – not to say heavy – but so rewarding! I left Berlin with a brand new international network of colleagues to rely on, and with the knowledge of a methodology to tackle changes within big institutions such as universities. I got inspired by group work (no kidding). I got a methodological backbone. I took a deep dive in English. I got to learn how to be heard by boards. I had a fun time while meeting inspiring individuals.

The key takeaway for me is that finding solutions for big problems, usually isn’t done by individuals. You need colleagues from several departments on board with you, and they do speak other languages when it comes to priorities and concerns. HUMANE summer school learned me that picking a balanced team and investing in the group dynamic pays off.

We worked quite hard during the summer, as me and my team wanted to get to know each other beforehand. These summer meetings paid well of, as there is very little ‘free time’ during the course and you are expected to quickly divide team roles and perform as a group. The similarities between our international working environments struck me. However our universities differ when it comes to operational procedures, my fellow university managers are clearly facing the same challenges in their work environment. It’s pleasantly relieving to see and discuss these similarities and projecting them on my daily work.

I specifically enjoyed the finale of the week, which was a role play. We got to act as if we were speaking to the board members, but also had the chance to switch roles and have a critical eye on the other case. Being challenged to think as a C-suite member, has helped me to shape my thoughts and insights from their perspective.”

Marco Porzionato

Finance, Planning & Control Manager, University of Padova

“The Summer School in Berlin was wonderful! I really did not expect such an intensive program, working hard from dawn to dusk (seeing Berlin on an evening bus tour!). I’ve had the opportunity to live five days in an international environment, working in-depth with colleagues from everywhere (from Australia to Norway, from Russia to Spain…). I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned to deal with new perspectives, to work as a part of a multicultural group, to share competencies and points of view. Most of all, I’ve learned to learn, with new schemes, new methods, a new mental attitude. The experts, teachers, colleagues that I met will remain as a brick of my professional life, on which I will be able to keep building new experiences. Many thanks to all of you!”

Jacobine Buizer-Voskamp

Managing Director strategic theme Dynamics of Youth, Utrecht University

“It was such a great pleasure to be part of the HUMANE Summer School 2022 in Berlin. It was intense, interactive, informative, intercultural, but above all immensely enjoyable. Three key aspects made this week a memorable one: the people, the sessions, and the group work.

It was a special experience to spend a week with people in similar positions at different universities from Europe. The differences in culture, organization and approach were hugely instructive. And besides, it was the perfect way for building an international network. The hosts and organizers made us feel welcome and created a perfect balance between work and fun.
The sessions were extremely informative and were delivered by inspiring colleagues from across Europe. So many insights passed by that I hope I can use for a long time to come. Just a few to mention: Make it essential, make it ready, make it happen and make it stick! | Change from focusing on the way we are organised to focusing on the needs | Context is everything | Try to find positivity in the daily things, not only in the special projects.

By working in a small group on a case study, we were able to apply the insights from the sessions directly in practice. And what’s more, it encouraged us to work in a whole new, creative way, together towards a final product with tight deadlines. I found that surprisingly fun and it really inspired me to take on projects in new ways.

Looking back, it was an extraordinary experience, and I would recommend it to anyone: throw yourself into the deep end and gain new knowledge with new people.”

Emma Vestberg

Administrative Director, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Linnaeus University, Sweden

“The Summer School 2021 was a great learning experience in an intercultural setting. An intensive week with high level lectures, workshops and group work. The Summer school developed my professional leadership and personal skills and inspired me in my everyday work and with strategic transformation.”

Nynke Rodenhuis

Senior Advisor to the Executive Board, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

“The world in which universities operate is changing rapidly, while change within universities is often slow and difficult. During the HUMANE Summer School in Berlin, we were challenged to think about the future of the university and how to design and bring about change. I really enjoyed the very well-balanced programme that offered a wide variety of perspectives on change as well as some hard learnt lessons from the trenches.

Getting my hands dirty working on a case study with fellow participants gave the chance to put theory into practice. The programme provided an excellent opportunity to really reflect on topics that shape the future of universities and exchange experiences with interesting people from around the world. An opportunity I am happy not to have missed.”

Dirk Jansen

Professional Services Manager, Monash University

“I thoroughly enjoyed attending the 2019 HUMANE Summer School in Berlin. The program was varied and interesting with guest speakers from all over Europe. The topic ‘Transforming Higher Education Professional Services’ was so relevant for my role at Monash University and it is not often you get to spend a whole week exploring change leadership from different perspectives and learning a variety of models and approaches. Listening to different case studies provided a practical look at how other Universities are responding to the increasing pace of change and it allowed us to apply some of our learnings through real scenarios.

On a more personal note, it was great to meet and network with other leaders from different Universities across Europe and Australia and everyone had a great time studying and working together. The Freie Universität was a perfect host for the week and Berlin as a city which has undergone major transformation was an inspiring location to remove yourself from the daily routine and objectively look at change management. Our hosts and organisers went out of their way to make us feel welcome and created an interesting and interactive program which was challenging and fun at the same time. I highly recommend the summer school and hope I get the opportunity to attend again in the future”

Gioia Lovison

Director, Communications Office, University of Padova

“The HUMANE Summer School in Berlin was my first experience with the HUMANE community, and I am very pleased to say that it was inspiring, challenging, hard and complex as the main theme was: making “the change” stick.

We worked hard to investigate the reasons why many European universities’ strategic transformation programmes fail. For six days, in plenary sessions, we listened to several speakers from European and Australian Universities and other public institutions; we used their presentations to analyse why a considerable change is so difficult to put into practice. We worked also in small groups on case studies and attended dynamic workshops too, like the Salsa class on leadership and followership. It was extremely eye-opening to explore my personal leadership and followership style while dancing Salsa and “feeling the rhythm,” as the presenter invited us to do.

I appreciated the way the programme put on the table new ideas on how to adapt change methods used in other business sectors. I took with me many lessons I would like to apply to my current working situation at the University of Padua! The success of a transformation programme is based on the work of committed, trained and rewarded people; it is of the utmost importance to share a clear and simple vision with them; it is also essential to promote a collaboration culture at all levels, not to mention the necessary time to realize all these actions!”

David Meech Mazumdar

Manager, Strategic Planning & Development, London School of Economics

“The HUMANE Summer School in Berlin was a fantastic opportunity to hear from professionals in higher education and other related sectors about the challenges involved in transformation programmes. It also provided a platform to discuss real life cases and work on these with colleagues from across Europe and Australia, putting into practice knowledge gained on methodology from the various presenters, whilst making our own recommendations based on the research we carried out in our groups.

The programme was very intensive, which gave a real sense of urgency with the need to stop, think and reflect ever present, but we also learnt how dance can mirror leadership and followership, whilst ensuring that we took care to see the bigger picture through an art task.

I took a lot away from the Summer School including the importance of team work and clear communication throughout the process. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know colleagues from other universities, countries and cultures who experience very similar challenges. Meeting others who are dealing with similar issues at work is invaluable in helping to unlock problems and find solutions together which happened on a number of occasions throughout the week.

I would thoroughly recommend this programme to any HE professional who is involved in a transformation programme, as the knowledge and skills you take away will bring structure and substance to the work that you do in ensuring that change is the new status quo.”