����Ӱ��

Touch the Exchange is a new interactive facility that displays Tallinn University’s partner universities and based on the user’s profile, lists options for scholarships. It also includes features for international students, providing them with information about degree studies in English and details of the Summer and Winter Schools. Located in the study centre in the Astra building, it became operational at the beginning of September.

Touch the Exchange project manager, Marvi Pulver comments:

“Studying, working and self-improvement abroad is becoming an increasingly common and natural part of students’ and lecturers’ academic experience. It is also becoming a common career choice for the support personnel in the university.

Tallinn University enjoys constantly expanding and strengthening collaboration with universities around the world, which enhances international mobility. While this is good to know, a lot of questions begin to arise when one starts to seriously consider their mobility options: Where do I start?  Where do I go? How do I make it happen? The interactive facility Touch the Exchange, located in a study centre in the Astra building, provides some basic answers. An interactive world map opens on the booth’s touch screen. You can choose your profile (student, lecturer, supporting personnel); study level, the reason for your interest in mobility (studying or teaching) and the time period. The programme also provides the initial scholarship options based on the user choices. Tallinn University’s partner universities and conditions set out in the contract for studying or teaching are displayed as a search result.
Currently, the programme contains information on 441 universities. The app allows the user to forward questions to the mobility programme coordinators for additional information and then have the information from the search results sent to their personal e-mail address for later reference.

The facility is intended primarily for the students, lecturers and support personnel of Tallinn University to introduce the main mobility options and to make the choice easier. However, it also has features for international students, providing them with information about degree studies in English, as well as details of the Summer and Winter Schools. It also offers a visual and compact overview of the range of possibilities for Tallinn University’s international collaboration. This is a great introduction for collaboration partners and guests.

A lot of University employees and students have helped in creating Touch the Exchange. Preparations began a year and a half ago while the really serious work began at the end of last year. A project team from the at the developed the software programme. It was carried out under the leadership of Ilja Šmorgun, a doctoral student and supervised by Professor David Lamas. The developer of the facility was Pjotr Savitski while the author of the lovely graphic design was Darja Tokranova, a master’s student at the Institute of Informatics. Professor Aili Vahtrapuu from the , created the design for the information booth and the companies, Timmet Metall and THE Systems, were responsible for the concept development. Concepts for the content of the programme were created with the help of the employees from the following departments: institutional development, academic affairs, personnel, research, marketing and communication. The programme was tested with the assistance of students, lecturers and supporting personnel of the University. Many other employees have contributed or helped in one way or another. The information booth was opened for general use on 3 September.”

Rector of Tallinn University, Prof Tiit Land, 
opening Touch the Exchange information booth