Reportonthe19thspace Conference rune gulev UniversityofPrimorska,Slovenia The19th international space (EuropeanNetworkforBusiness Studies andLanguages) conference thatrecently tookplace in Spain provided valuable insightintoseveral areas ofinterest.Most notably,methodsonhowtosuccessfullyenhancetheinternation- alization ofhigherlearning institutionswere sharedthrough mo- bility andjointdegrees programs. Furthermore, theconference provided an academic forumforahighlyprofessionalandearnest discourse onpertinenttopicsofrelevance forhigherlearningin- stitutions,whichthisyear pivoted aroundintercultural awareness anddialogue. Insum,thespacenetwork provides awealth ofaca- demic andadministrative advantages thattheacademic sphere could greatly benefit from. Key words: mobility,internationalization ofhigherlearninginsti- tutions,intercultural awareness Introduction The current short commentary is an account of the 19th interna- tional spaceconference held in Valencia, Spain from the 8th to the 12th of April, 2008. The purpose of the article is to give interested readers insight into the areas that space organization covers, the benefits it delivers and finally to provide food for thought about the faculties integrating into spacenetwork and eventually becoming permanent spacemembers. For questions and comments I remain open. space–AtrulyPan-EuropeanOrganization Theterm‘Pan-European’isoftenusedratherfrivolously.Imyself,in myacademicworks,amprobablynoexceptionandcouldbedeemed guilty of abusing the word only to depict common ground between two countries. Granted, this does indeed suffice for the minimal in- terpretation of the term Pan-European, but it denies full apprecia- tionofthewordwhenitisappliedtoatrulyEuropeanagenda.space (European Network for Business Studies and Languages), however, doesthewordjustice.Itconnectsmorethan80HigherEducationIn- stitutions (heis) in 30 countries from both ‘old’ and emerging ‘new’ management 3 (2): 185–189 185 RuneGulev Europe.ItisthistrulyEuropeanapproachwhichprovidesthespace conferenceswithinvaluableinsightsfromotherEuropeanheisthat is difficulttofindelsewhere. Through thePan-European network,spaceseeksto: • Developjointdegreesandsharedprogramsincludingonlineex- ams and courses.spaceacts as the hub from which the partner institutionscanaccessandcoordinatecourses.Thisisespecially helpful for newly established heis that are looking forward to gainacademicknowledgefrommoreexperiencedschools. • Act as a platform for idea and research exchanges. The annual conferencesareorganizedaspeer-reviewedresearchforums. • Offeranenvironmentforinitiatingmobilityprojectsforstaffand students. • Facilitateworkplacementsforstudents. For furtherlistingofspacegoalsandobjectives,forwhichindeed therearemany,Isuggestyourefertothespacewebsite(www.space- eu.info). The19thspaceConferenceinShort The 19th spaceconference served two main purposes: first to co- ordinate joint development and mobility programs and second to deliver academic presentations on conference themes ‘Advances in Higher Education: Research, Education and Innovation in the Eu- ropean and Global ResearchArea’ and ‘Intercultural Dialogue: Cul- turalDiversityintheBusinessWorld andEuropean Citizenship’. Excellent presentations were held on how online virtual courses canbebetterchannelledtopartnerinstitutionsthroughreal-lifeex- amples. Along the same vein, there was an exchange of knowledge on the ways in which mobility of teachers and students could be vastly improved including how to address some of the most com- mon pitfalls of student and staff mobility. Sally Brown delivered a particularly interesting presentation entitled ‘Assessment, Learning and Teaching: An International Perspective’ wherein she discussed several candid revelations about international exchanges that took placeatLeedsMetropolitanUniversity,Leeds,uk.Twotopicsofpar- ticular interest were the perception gap that foreign and local stu- dentshavetowardsordinaryacademicsituations,andasinconsis- tentviewsthatteachersharbortowards internationalstudents. Within the topic of ‘National and International heand Business Partnerships’ the following papers were of particular interest and areworthmentioning: 186 management · volume 3 Reportonthe19thspaceConference OleFaaborgandEijaKällstrompresentedthepaper‘Matchingthe Requirements for Soft Skills in Business’ wherein they explore the need for soft skills in business and how business schools can effec- tively match the current trends in industry requirements for staff with soft competencies. The results showed that in both cases there is a high demand for disciplinary skills in combination with soft skills,butthatthefeltimportanceforsoftskillsdiffersfromcountry to country. Conclusions of the authors were that soft competences areindemandandthatashortagemaybeexperiencedinthefuture ifuniversitiesdonotadapttheirprogramsaccordingly. Kasim Tatic presented an intuitive paper called ‘Cross-Cultural Communication, Jungian Psychology and Emotional Intelligence’ which took a step back from a typical cultural dialogue and argued that communication between individuals is always cross cultural as a result of differing levels and manifestations of emotional intel- ligence. The paper assumes that the academic community will be betterservedifculturalinvestigationsbeginatpersonallevelbefore digressingtothenationallevel.Althoughthepaperreceivedmeritat the conference, I thought the points brought up by the author were not as productive as I had expected. It is important to acknowledge people’s individual upbringing, however, in the context of intercul- tural dialogue, I believe it is also important to distinguish between cultureandpersonality.Theauthorfailedtoconvincemeofthisdis- tinction and hence, in my opinion, took an unnecessary step back- wards within the cultural debate. Nevertheless, his paper has some valueonthepsychologicallevelandreadersinterestedinthisaspect canfind valueinhiswork. The theme ‘Leadership and Culture’ had only one relevant paper worth mentioning: StefanMoenspresentedthepaper‘InnovativeCross-CulturalEd- ucational Method’ wherein the author proposed a new method of internationalization at home. The content of this presentation was relevant to heis that experience difficulties in getting their local students to take international semesters abroad as methods of in- creasinginterculturalawarenessathomewerediscussed.Thepaper pivots around how to increase interaction with the foreign students at the local university and accesses how two different groups, the internationally ‘involved’ and‘non-involved’ students,tacklethein- ternationalization of foreign students at home. It was shown that both groups must develop their cross-cultural capabilities which would prove useful in their preparation for the business world. Furthermore, coerced integration of the local students with foreign number 2 · summer 2008 187 RuneGulev students was seen as an important step of internationalization at home and a way of arming the local students with a better multicul- tural/international toolkit. Within the theme ‘The 2008 Intercultural Dialogue Year’ the fol- lowing paperswereofparticularinterest: Alexandra Albuquerque presentedaveryinterestingpapercalled ‘Can Erasmus Mobility Really Help Crossing Borders? The In and Out of a Case Study’. In the paper she draws conclusions based on Portuguese Erasmus experiences which are not that different from those in Slovenia. The notion that mobility of students can actually reinforce, rather than weaken, the borders between the countries is aired but quickly discarded in favor of several other benefits, par- ticularly culturaldevelopment andlanguage improvement. Further- more, the article states that students as well as teachers who have participatedinErasmusexchangeprogrammesandhaveduringthe exchange successfully interacted with foreign cultures can, because of their experience, contribute more to the internationalization at home. The benefits of mobility are similarly acknowledged in the article of Lenka Drabkova. Her paper ‘The Role of Students´ Mobilities in Intercultural Relations Development’ concludes that mobility is one of the most important international activities that universities can undertake with the aim of building and developing relations among the institutions of higher education and among nations. As such, the conceptof studentand teachermobility has many purposes.For teachers, mobility is a good chance to meet professionals working in the same field, share experience, compare the systems of educa- tion in their home country and a foreign country, improve a foreign language and last but not least start cooperating on different grants andprojects.Forstudentstheadvantagesareequallyamplewiththe added benefit of receiving recognizable accreditation for their aca- demicwork. The theme ‘Advances in Language Studies and Education’ con- tributed thefollowing interestingpaper: Jane Stapleford and Dawn Leggot presented their paper entitled ‘LanguageStudiesandPedagogiesfortheDevelopmentofEmploya- bilityandInterculturalCompetencefortheGlobalWorkplace’which dealt with the gap between students’ perception of their skills and what is indeed required from them once they enter the job market. The paper addresses some techniques that can be used to develop pedagogical strategies for overcoming both staff and student resis- tanceandtipsforembeddingemployabilityandinternationalization 188 management · volume 3 Reportonthe19thspaceConference in heis quality assurance systems.The study concludes that certain curriculum changes like incorporating personal development plan- ning can indeed help to bridge the gap between the students’ per- ception of their skills development and the skills that 21st century employersrequire. The final paper that I consider in my account is perhaps also the most interesting. Doina Cmeciu from Romania presented her work on overcoming prejudices in a globalized world. I recommend this paper to anyone interested in an occasionally honest read about prejudices and stereotypes; a topic in the intercultural research de- bate that is highly neglected despite the human tendency towards stereotypes. The paper entitled ‘Managing “Pride and Prejudice” through (inter/trans) Cultural Communication’ focuses on the diffi- cultiesarisingduringacommunicationprocesswhenthelocutorand interlocutor donot sharethe sameculturalvalues.Effectslikepride andprejudiceinparticularemergefrommisunderstandingandmis- interpretingmessagesexchangedduringsuchanencounterorpride and prejudice are a consequence of one’s own stereotypes. The am- bitiousandveryinterestingoutsetofthepaperis,however,followed by a rather predictable conclusion; in order to overcome prejudices andstereotypesonemustbeabletodevelopcompetencesandskills inassessingthesocialcontexttogetherwiththepositionandrolesof thecommunicators.ThearticlealsosuggeststhatErasmusexchange programsfacilitatethis development. Conclusion The 19th spaceconference provided very valuable insight in two main issues. First, some practical insights were shared on how in- tercultural exchanges of teachers and students can be facilitated through better mobility and joint degree programs and second, in- depth presentations and debates on the topic of intercultural dia- loguewerepresentedanddebated. Besidesthesetangibleaspects,theconferencealsoprovidedapro- fessional platform for teachersand academicswith similar interests to network and coordinate upcoming cooperative inter-university plans and also to meet some noted authorities on cultural issues, likeLarsLyngeNilesen,thePresidentofEurashe,andFonsTrompe- naars, a founding father of modern cultural discourse, just to men- tion afew. number 2 · summer 2008 189