Inter-university collaboration: developing the

Abstract

Recent years have shown a rapid growth in collaboration among the Baltic Sea region countries: Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania: including manpower mobility. To facilitate co-operation workers must be trained to mutually communicate. Seven technical universities from Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have created a consortium for science and technology. The goal of this consortium is to create a virtual ‘Baltic Sea University of Science and Technology’ based on a number of universities around the Baltic Sea as a strategic resource for a long-term development of education and research in accordance with needs of the region. One of the pilot projects which has been running successfully from 1998 is a common Master’s degree programme ‘Industrial Engineering and Management’. The programme lays a strong emphasis on promoting democracy, intercultural contacts, and maximising national resources. BALTECH, the University Consortium in Science and Technology, was created in 1998. It is an autonomous non-governmental, non-profit organisation which consists of partner universities integrated into a solid base for closer partnership and co-operation in the Baltic Sea Region within the areas of natural and engineering sciences, technology development and industrial management.