DAAD Go-East Summer School

About the University

New Vision University (NVU) is a well-established private university in Tbilisi which, alongside its medical focus (owning and operating a hospital, as well as offering an acclaimed medical studies program), also offers degree programs in law, political science, international relations, business administration and information technology. NVU is a unique university in Georgia hosting up to 4,000 students from 80 countries. All programs are offered in English.

The DAAD Go-East Summer School is intended to enhance international contacts among Bachelor of Arts students in law and social sciences. The School’s programme length is two weeks. All courses are taught in English by scholars from the region, ensuring diversity of teaching methods and professional backgrounds.

Theme of the Summer School

Criminal law is typically a direct expression of societal values, often understood as the “legal interest” behind a respective criminal norm. As such, societal values may impact the interpretation of respective regulations. Criminal law discourses can be of interest and relevant
to wider audiences, considering its social, cultural and political dimensions.

The European Neighborhood Policy, especially the Eastern Partnership, aims to economically, politically and culturally support and strengthen various post-Soviet republics and to promote a “Europeanization” strategy among these states. Hence, scholarly and analytical discussions are important and shed light on this process of transferring values, sharing norms and harmonizing regulations between countries. An obstacle in this process remains that the Russian Federation never gave up the South Caucasus countries as its own neighborhood (“near abroad”) and is
embarking on a hybrid strategy of military intervention, supporting separatist movements and “frozen conflicts”, as well as promoting a “community of values” based on its own religious and political motives.

What do we offer?

• a unique interdisciplinary curriculum building on a broad social sciences perspective which will enable the participants to grasp the values of this diverse region where different interests intersect.
• the curriculum focusing on understanding criminal law and situating it in its cultural context under the guidance of the renowned experts in the field. This learning experience is intended to primarily benefit students in their pursuit of social sciences and law.
• an opportunity to share values and views between German and other foreign students, as well as students from the region, through an experimental learning approach that is based on first impressions of the realities of the South Caucasus.

SOCIAL EVENTS

As part of the agenda of the Summer School, a rich variety of social activities is planned that will immerse participants into a diverse, multicultural environment:

• an excursion in Batumi on the Black Sea coast where the Georgian Constitutional Court is located;
• face-to-face meetings with constitutional court judges;
• An excursion to Yerevan (Armenia). At the Institute of Criminal Law of the Yerevan State University, the participants will hear about the amendments to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia that recently entered into force.

ECTS load: 3 ECTS, the summer school lasts for 15 days and offers 30 academic hours of lectures/team work/projects and presentations. Throughout the school, students will be developing group research projects to be submitted for the final evaluation.

Language course (optional): a course of basic Georgian is offered as part of the Summer School

Target audience: The Summer School welcomes BA students from all over the world enrolled in BA programs in the field of social sciences, preferably political science and law.

The Summer school fee: is 600 EUR. A limited number of DAAD Scholarships to cover transportation and accommodation expenses is available for German students currently enrolled in German universities. Interested candidates are required to apply both to New Vision University for admission to a summer school, and to the DAAD for a scholarship acquirement at the same time. The deadline for the application for the DAAD scholarship is June 1st, 2022.

How to Apply:
Candidates need to submit their applications by June 1st, 2022 to ir@old.newvision.ge (contact person: Ivanna Machitidze, Head of International Relations Office)

Please specify “DAAD Go EAST Summer School – application” in the email subject line.

The following documents should be submitted as part of application:

• Curriculum Vitae;
• Confirmation of an active student status (confirmation of enrolment);
• Academic transcript (duly stamped and signed, on the University letterhead);
• Motivation letter (max. 600 words stating your interest to take part in the program; academic background; the idea for a prospective research project you plan to work on throughout the Summer School)
• Proof of English Language Proficiency (for non-native English speakers one of the options is acceptable: a standardized English language test score results (B2 level), proof of English as the language of instruction).