European union policy ?
But what is related to the course i follow in France? That is exactly the first thing i was wondering when i saw the list with all minors i was able to follow. Finally i had to make a choice between Asian trade (which doesn't attract me at all) and the so called European Union Policy minor and a minute later i was involved in that course but without knowing what i would find in it.
I come from France which is of course a member state of the EU but really, and now i feel shameful about it, except the name and the very basic ground of it i didn't know anything else related to it.
Moreover when i arrived at the Avans for the first time i quickly realized that our learning methods are so different.
First of all, and one of the most difficult for me as a French student, the time table. I used to have 35 hours of class per week while here i only had less than ten hours but on the other hand they expect from us a wider amount of self studies which i took a few times to assimilate.
The minor is divided into twelve different tasks which focus on various areas of European Union Policy (the four freedoms, monetary policy, competition policy, etc…) and handle the all evolution of the European Union, the relation of European business to the growth of the single market, and the importance of policies to ensure competition in a more integrated and enlarged European Union. And this is achieved through three main pillars: European law, European economics and European communication. The learning system in itself push us to be the more involved possible with a lot of project group assignments , a debating class, the seven step model used during the tutor group. Tutor group’s principal aim is to make us discussing about the task of the day almost without any monitoring from the teacher, one of the students is appointed as the chair-person and lead the discussion, this tutor group is usually followed by multiple lectures and training session related to it.
At the beginning i had to struggle a lot to find my way through the treaties , the law making process, all the EU institutions but actually i can say that it was one of the most interesting course i followed during all my studies.
Especially we did an excursion to European institutions which I really enjoyed because of its relevant character and indeed it strongly helped me to clearly realize the importance of the European Union and how it works.
Today I hardly recommend to all European Union citizens to follow this minor because it’s impressive to see in what extend the European Union is present in our daily life and how the large majority of the people ingnore everything about it.
To conclude I’m proud today to be able to say that I feel as well as a citizen from France than from the European Union!
