I have an extensive background working with international affairs at TAMK, but music is a field I don’t have that much experience in yet. Therefore, I decided to participate in the two most important international events for IRCs in the field of music in 2025: NordplusmusicForum (http://(http://www.nordplusmusic.net/index.php?id=507) in Vilnius and AEC IRC meeting in Budapest. If you’re interested in my experiences in the NordplusMusic Forum, please read the blog post here: https://blogs.tuni.fi/tamk-international/networking/nordic-values-and-identity-exploring-nordic-and-baltic-collaboration-in-vilnius/.
As I anticipated, the event was very much like the one in Vilnius, but just much bigger. There were over 250 participants from all over Europe, and also from some associated countries from other parts of the world. The focus was on information exchange, sharing best practices, and of course networking. The venue for the event was the amazingly beautiful Liszt Academy of Music, and the organizers did a fantastic job.
The programme was very intensive with sessions on different topics. AEC had introduced a new buddy system for newcomers, which was a nice idea. I already knew quite a few people thanks to participating in the NordplusMusic Forum, but having a more experienced AEC IRC buddy as a new friend didn’t hurt! The speed dating session was also helpful in getting more new contacts.
Information-wise, the best part of the programme was the parallel sessions, where the participants were able to select sessions based on their own interests. The first session I attended was about Erasmus+ BIPs (Blended Intensive Programmes) facilitated by Oana Balan from the National Academy of Music in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. BIPs have been a very hot topic at TAMK over the past couple of years, and there have also been preliminary talks about having our own BIP in music as well, but so far, we have only sent our students to some BIPs organized by our partner universities abroad. I am also quite heavily involved in an EU project called HIBlend (https://hiblend.eu/), which aims at improving the quality of blended mobility initiatives and providing teachers and other stakeholders with a toolkit and other resources, so I’m not a newbie in the topic. However, the session still offered fresh ideas – for example, I took note of the recommendation to have separate meetings for the teachers and international officers working on a particular BIP instead of joint ones. A very hands-on idea for the virtual part of a BIP in the field of music was to have the students meet online with the composers of the piece they are working on in the BIP during the practice period (if the BIP is based on performing a certain piece). Another very useful session I attended was titled Project Evaluation Do’s and Don’t’s – Cracking the EU Code by Siri Haug from University of Stavanger and Siarhei Piashkun from West Norway University of Applied Sciences. They offered extremely useful and hands-on guidance on writing project applications. One of the tips they offered was to utilize AI in comparing the previous year’s Annual Work Programme or Multiannual Financial Framework with the current year’s to find out what has changed and through that hone your institutional strategy for selecting which calls to apply. Another tip was to avoid mixing the results with the impact in the applications – “impact is the change”.
The social programme included a grand dinner at the beautiful Corinthia Hotel, a boat trip on the Danube, and an amazing concert by the Erasmus Orchestra, which consists of Erasmus students from all over Europe. All in all, I was really happy to have the chance to attend this event, and I think it will definitely be useful for TAMK to keep attending it every year.
Author: Henri Annala, Senior Lecturer & International Coordinator
