Views of Erasmus+ Exchange Students Studying in the Field of Sports in Different Countries Regarding the Programme

This study aims to analyze the views of Erasmus+ Exchange students studying in the field of sports in different countries regarding the programme. In the study, descriptive phenomenology design, one of qualitative study designs, was used. In accordance with this aim, five open ended questions answered by 14 foreign students participating in the Erasmus+ exchange programme in different universities offering sports science programmes in Portugal were analyzed through content analysis. The data obtained from the students were discussed under five themes, which are; reasons for participating in the programme, contribution to the field, challenges faced, similarities and differences with their education and suggestions. The views expressed by the students reveal that their reason for participating in the programme is to experience different cultures; the contribution of the programme to their field is the different course styles; the challenges they face are language and financial challenges; the similarity with the education in their country is the course contents and the difference is the teaching styles; and their suggestion is that the students shouldn’t be afraid to participate in exchange programmes.

Selective Learning: China, the CGIAR, and Global Agricultural Science in Flux

This article analyses the interaction between China and the CGIAR (formerly the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) since the 1970s, exploring the formation of China’s modern agricultural science capability and its approach towards learning. While China was previously regarded and treated as a recipient of international scientific expertise, it is now a more equal partner and contributor, with capacity to provide funds, support exchange programmes for scientists, and collaborate in building laboratories and joint research programmes. Some of these now extend beyond the CGIAR system and are creating new platforms for scientific collaboration and knowledge production in the South. By offering an illustration of China’s ‘selective learning’ approach, emphasising self-reliance and pragmatism in its engagement with the CGIAR, this article feeds into broader debates on how China contributes to global development knowledge and learning.

Scientific ideologies on the move: Sino-British exchanges, scientific freedoms and the governance of science in Britain, 1961–1966

In the early 1960s, amidst a period of considerable debate surrounding how civil science in Britain should be governed, British scientists—especially those associated with the Royal Society—and their counterparts in the People's Republic of China (PRC) began tentative exchange programmes. Although such unusual interactions between Cold War adversaries were enabled by claims that science was a universal and apolitical phenomenon, the ways in which institutional and individual participants were embroiled in these domestic debates illuminate how their ideological outlooks shaped their views on exchange and on the science they encountered. By focusing on three interrelated exchanges during this period—an individual scientist's visit to the PRC, a Royal Society delegation to China, and a larger research programme bringing junior Chinese researchers to Britain—I argue that participating British scientists' conceptualizations of ‘scientific freedom’ framed how they judged science in China, and the value of these exchanges; their observations and actions during these interactions reflected their views on domestic British debates over the governance of science. This study thereby sheds light on how the ideological attitudes of participants of science diplomacy shape its practice.

Women Who Inject Drugs (WWID): Stigma, Gender and Barriers to Needle Exchange Programmes (NEPs)

Global evidence suggests that experiences of access to Needle Exchange services are gendered and that women who inject drugs (WWID) access needle exchange services differently to men. Despite being a significant proportion of injecting drug users, women’s voices and experiences have often been silenced in studies around harm reduction service provision, hampering the development of harm reduction services for WWID. This article highlights the experiences of four women and one trans man who have previously injected drugs, in accessing needle exchange programmes (NEPs) in a New Zealand context. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were carried out with five participants and thematic analysis of the interviews produced three core themes: how stigma permeates WWIDs’ lives; barriers in accessing needle exchange services; and how experiences within a drugs context are gendered. Stigma was an overwhelming issue affecting WWID which also acted as a barrier to their access of NEPs. The WWID in our study in terms of Goffman’s original theorizing were “doubly discredited” as well as “precariously discreditable” due to their gender and injection drug using status. The participants keenly felt their stigmatized status through interactions with pharmacy-based needle exchange staff, perceiving that pharmacy staff viewed them as more contaminated than their male counterparts. Gendered relationships were also noted in injection practices, although initiation for this group of WWID was done by intimate partners as well as friends, dispelling the stereotype of WWID as passive victims. Some participants also learnt to self-inject which gave them a sense of empowerment and freedom as they did not have to rely on others to help them. The social structures that support stigmatizing tropes about WWID need to be addressed as well as more local interventions to prevent stigma in NEPs, alongside women focused services.

Vera Bácskai and her significance in the development of European urban history: a personal account

This account of Vera Bacskai's contribution to European urban history after 1990 is a personal narrative, written by a friend and collaborator. It argues that her role was multi-dimensional. It was founded on her major publications on Budapest and small towns, shedding a crucial East Central European light on European urbanization. It was underpinned by her participation in various international projects like the EU TEMPUS programme which created strong institutional bonds with Western universities as well as opportunities for Hungarian students through exchange programmes, international workshops and the like. Not least, she was a strong pillar in the construction of the European Association for Urban History. When she joined the committee in 1991, it was still an embryonic body. In 1996, she organized the successful and important Budapest conference. When she retired from EAUH in 2004, its conferences were attracting many hundreds of researchers, from across Europe and beyond.

Cross-border Education: Students Exchange Programme Participants’ Perspective on ERASMUS

Modern educational landscape has been undergoing drastic changes due to the processes of internationalization and transnationalization. Internationalization in higher education is manifold, student academic mobility being one of its manifestations. It is often associated with ERASMUS, the programme that has been implemented in European higher education for almost 30 years. It provides short-term student exchange programmes and involves EU member states as well as other European countries, including Russia. The effect of ERASMUS on higher education of EU countries has been thoroughly studied, while its Russian segment remains a white spot. This article reports on the study done among Russian students who participated in ERASMUS students exchange programmes in 2018–2020 as well as the Russian students educated along with their international colleagues in a home university. The employment of qualitative methods revealed that Russian participants of ERASMUS exchange programmes find them very effective. The most significant benefits include the development of cross-cultural competence as well as professional skills and personal growth. Students working with international participants of ERASMUS programme in a home university were very positive about the experience. Such communication makes the classes interesting, helps Russian students develop understanding of cultural issues, increases their motivation and gives impetus to self-development.

Developing Students’ Intercultural Communicative Competence through Online Learning

In a rapidly globalising world, every modern person needs a sufficient level of intercultural competence (IC). An increasing part of communication is carried out through the online environment, and it becomes more natural to acquire communication skills in it. However, representatives of non-linguistic specialities may not be aware of the importance of this phenomenon. The primary purpose of this research is to identify the attitude of representatives of a non-linguistic speciality to IC through online learning. To collect information, semi-structured interviews were conducted among students of medical and linguistic specialities, for which online learning is practiced. It is crucial to find out how diverse the attitude towards IC is among the representatives of various fields of activity. Bachelor students of state universities took part in the semi-structured interview. All the respondents are in the fourth year of study. The survey included 370 students aged 20-21. The difference in the specialities was one of the most important criteria for selecting respondents. As the results show, representatives of a non-linguistic speciality are indeed less aware and interested in increasing IC in online learning. Several solutions were proposed to solve this problem: increasing interest in interculturalism by spreading information in an educational institution's online environment; teachers’ help to students to develop such a competence; using the online environment; providing additional online materials; participation in international online events and exchange programmes.

A Sin or a Health Issue? : Morality Policy Framing and the State of Harm Reduction in East-Central Europe

Aims. There are significant differences in harm reduction services availability and performance in various countries. The paper examines the state of one of the harm reduction interventions – needle exchange services – through the lenses of morality policy, attempting to establish possible relationships between policy framing and policy outcomes. Method. The research uses an explorative design with cross-country comparison. The unit of analysis is drug policy in a country, and the geographical scope includes Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, following the maximum variation case selection procedure. Countries’ drug strategies are analysed to identify the policy frames and data on needle exchange programmes are used to assess the state of harm reduction. Results. The analysis identified health and social drug policy framing in Czechia and Slovakia, morality frame in Hungary and no frame in Poland. The availability of availability and coverage of needle exchange programmes is the highest in Czechia, followed by Slovakia, Hungary and Poland. Conclusions. The Hungarian case confirms the relationship between morality framing and poor policy outcomes, while the Czech case between health framing and effective policy. Further research is needed to establish the function of morality framing as necessary and/or sufficient condition for unsatisfactory policy outcomes.

Could 30 years of political controversy on needle exchange programmes in Sweden contribute to scaling-up harm reduction services in the world?

Aims: To end the hepatitis and AIDS epidemics in the world by 2030, countries are encouraged to scale-up harm reduction services and target people who inject drugs (PWID). Blood-borne viruses (BBV) among PWID spread via unsterile injection equipment sharing and to combat this, many countries have introduced needle and syringe exchange programmes (NEP), though not without controversy. Sweden’s long, complicated harm reduction policy transition has been deviant compared to the Nordic countries. After launch in 1986, no NEP were started in Sweden for 23 years, the reasons for which are analysed in this study. Methods: Policy documents, grey literature and research mainly published in 2000–2017 were collected and analysed using a hierarchical framework, to understand how continuous build-up of evidence, decisions and key events, over time influenced NEP development. Results: Sweden’s first NEP opened in a repressive-control drug policy era with a drug-free society goal. Despite high prevalence of BBV among PWID with recurring outbreaks, growing research and key-actor support including a NEP law, no NEP were launched. Political disagreements, fluctuating actor-coalitions, questioning of research, and a municipality veto against NEP, played critical roles. With an individual-centred perspective being brought into the drug policy domain, the manifestation of a dual drug and health policy track, a revised NEP law in 2017 and removal of the veto, Sweden would see fast expansion of new NEP. Conclusions: Lessons from the Swedish case could provide valuable insight for countries about to scale-up harm reduction services including how to circumvent costly time- and resource-intensive obstacles and processes involving ideological and individual moral dimensions.

Finding the Right Islam for the Maldives: Political Transformation and State-Responses to Growing Religious Dissent

At the first glance, the Maldives appear not to be prone to religious conflict. The archipelago state comprises a religiously and ethnically homogenous society, the different islands have been subject to shared Islamic rule for centuries and even constitutionally religious homogeneity is granted by making every citizen a Muslim and religious diversity prevented by limiting naturalisation to a specific Muslim group. Yet, today allegations of a threat to Islam play a major role in political mobilisation, the Maldives are faced with Islamist violence, and Maldivians have joined the Islamic State and al Qaeda in disproportionally high numbers. The paper seeks to find an answer to the question of how the repression of dissent under the Gayoom regime and the expansion and rise of violent Islamism relate in the Maldivian context. Next to the theoretical model, the paper will provide an introduction to the Maldivian political culture and the reasons for changes therein. It will shed light on the emergence of three major Islamic streams in the Maldivian society, which stood opposed to one another by the late 1990s and early 2000s, and show how Gayoom’s state repression of dissent initiated an escalation process and furthered Islamist violent politics. The paper will argue that while state repression of dissent played a significant role in the repertoire selection of Islamic non-state agents, the introduction of fundamentalist Islamic interpretations through migration, educational exchange programmes and transnational actors have laid the ground for violence in the Maldives.