During the Covid-19 lockdown, I received an email from the University of Southampton offering online summer school opportunities with partnered universities covering a range of different topics. Although I am a Biology student, International Relations is a topic that I am very interested in learning more about, so I applied for a place on Masaryk University’s ‘International Relations and Threats to Global Security’ 2-week summer school.
After being accepted, I had a few weeks to spare before the course started, so I spent time understanding the basics of what would be covered in lectures, and the Summer School Manager sent a list of recommended readings which was very useful. Once the course began, a typical day looked like this:
10am-12:30pm – complete reading for today’s lecture.
1pm-1:10pm – complete multiple choice or short-answer quiz based on compulsory readings.
1:10pm-3pm – online lecture on a particular topic ranging from Information Warfare to the Migration and Refugee Crisis.
3pm-4pm – work on Group Presentation or Essay.
In addition, there were a number of guest lectures, including discussions with representatives from Radio Free Europe and the United Nations. These were incredibly interesting and allowed us to see a different perspective towards some of the lecture topics that had already been covered.
Assessment for the Summer School was based on the following:
- Lecture participation – asking and answering questions and engaging in topic discussions – doing extra reading will really help with this!
- Quizzes – multiple choice and short-answer quizzes before each lecture that checked for understanding of the compulsory pre-lecture reading.
- Group presentation – I worked in a group of 4 on a presentation about how the Syrian crisis affects European security. This allowed us to ‘meet’ others on the course which was really helpful, as without this it would have been difficult to engage with other students as everything was online.
- Individual essay – this was a very broad and open essay, and we were instructed to write about a situation or crisis in the past that Europe failed to adequately respond to. I personally focussed my essay on the international arms industry, in which I argued that all European countries should cease arms trade with Saudi Arabia due to existing evidence that imported weapons are used against civilians in Yemen.
Overall, the course was incredibly interesting and allowed me to gain a thorough overview and understanding of International Relations, and the way in which Europe handles potential security threats. I would highly recommend this course!