BUP Student Conference 2022
Every spring, The Baltic University Programme holds its annual student conference, which is a conference for students on the topic of one of the ten BUP themes. In 2022, the conference was organised in collaboration between the BUP Coordinating Secretariat at Uppsala University and Slovak University of Agriculture and the topic was 'Resilient food systems from a Baltic Sea Region perspective'.
The conference took part at Uppsala University Campus Gotland in the town of Visby, located on the island of Gotland, Sweden. A total of 50 students from 25 of the BUP participating universities in Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Slovakia, Czechia and Germany joined the conference. The conference program consisted of a mixture of lectures, discussions, workshops, a fieldtrip and many social activities.
Students, teachers and staff after successfully completing the conference in the park Almedalen in Visby. Photo: Pontus Ambros
Evaluation of the Student Conference
All participating students were asked tp evaluate the conference in our standardised event evaluation. 47 out of the 50 participants answered the evaluation. The evaluation was sent to the students at the end of the final day of the conference. 70% of the respondants were female while 30% were male, which accurately correlated with the gender distribution of the participants.
The absolute majority of students seem to have enjoyed the conference, giving the conference a high average rating of 9.17 on a scale 1 to 10, where 1 is very bad and 10 is very good. The BUP's Students' Parliament also got a high ranking on its "democracy and fariness", with an average rating of 9.45 on a scale 1 to 10, where 1 is "not at all democratic and fair" while 10 is "very democratic and fair. This rating was the highest recorded for the BUP's students' parliament. For more details and information, you can read the full evaluation (pdf) Pdf, 585 kB. report here, where you also find some of the students comments on improvement of the student conference and the BUP's Students' Parliament.
Participant evaluations
- The students gave the event 9.17/10 in overall rating.
- Student rated the importance of the Students' Parliament to 8.12/10
- The "Democratic and Fairness" of the students parliament was rated to 9.45/10
- A great majority of the students were very pleased with student conference and expressed that they enjoyed the event a lot.
All ratings were made on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is considered negative and 10 considered positive.
Voices of participants
Johanna Liisa Järveläinen - Student at Tallinn University
The student conference was truly wonderful! Every aspect of the event was thought through and it was exiting to take part in every activity. Ratio between lectures and social activities was well-balanced. If you are a student and reading this, make sure to apply next year!
My biggest gain from the conference are all the new connections and hopefully meeting future colleagues in the field. Having the opportunity to discuss relevant topics and problems with likeminded students is a massive motivation boost to keep on working for a better region.
Iida Pyykkö - Lecturer from Uppsala University
The student conference was inspiring! It was great to have food sustainability as a topic because it is relevant for the island of Gotland, but not present in our Campus Gotland. Participating as a teacher in the conference allowed me to have new perspectives from the Baltic Sea Region students on the topic tha tI have been working on within the island context.
I enjoyed getting to know the students around the Baltic Sea Region, and as a food lover, it was great to have this cultural evening to get to know more about each region's food around the Baltic Sea.
Jan Schejok - Student from University of Ostrava
I have taken part in many conferences and this was easily said one of my favourites. Very well organised, interesting topics on a beautiful place on Gotland in the Baltic sea. It wasn't only the lectures to listen to, but we also made a little trip to the organic farm Lilla Bjers and had a workshop on hydrology. This change of activities kept my attention span very high during the whole conference.
One of the advantages of the conference was the evening non-formal discussions with the lecturers where they took part in the activies with the participating students and we had another discussion about the topics.
Images from the Student Conference
Photo: Pontus Ambros
Olle Jansson, Chairman of the BUP's international board and former Adviser to Uppsala University's Vice-Chancellor for Campus Gotland, welcomes the students to the Student conference and Uppsala University Campus Gotland.
Photo: Pontus Ambros
Students listening to a presentation on Food and Tourism on the island of Gotland. The program consisted of a mix of lectures, workshops and fieldtrips.
Photo: Pontus Ambros
PhD and Postdoctoral researcher Adrianus Both, lectures to the students on aquaculture and its connection to resilient food systems. Adrianus is one of the local researchers at Uppsala University Campus Gotland.
Photo: Johanna Liisa Järveläinen / Liis Seenemaa
Students listening to Margareta Hoas, farmer and owner of Lilla Bjers organic farm outside Visby. The participants took part in guided tour, showing the practical application of a organic and local food production.
Photo: Johanna Liisa Järveläinen / Liis Seenemaa
Guided tour in the old Hanseatic Town of Visby, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The guided tour took the students through some of the streets, churches, squares and parks in the over 1000 years old town.