Georgiana Bălău, lecturer International Studies and research coach to the student teams that developed a consultancy report for aQysta

“When I first learned that all the teaching in the PRINS course was to be done completely online, my initial concerns were about everything that had to be organised in a short time: using the online teaching platform, organising student sessions, planning ahead to meet all course deadlines. 
Now that the semester is completed, I can say that the PRINS course, in spite of its online form, unfolded successfully. The International Studies staff’s commitment made the move from teaching on campus to remote teaching possible in a short period of time. I am impressed with the hard work that the students put into the course, and also with their resilience, their motivation and creativity. The quality of their research reports is very high, which certainly is proof that this year’s course was again a success.

It was not easy for the students, there were so many things they were unable to do. They could not meet their peers face to face, they could not walk around on campus, they could not go to the library. In spite of that, they did very well in organising and coordinating themselves online. For me it certainly was a memorable and unique experience, I hope this is true for the students as well.”

Florian Volz, sales and project officer with aQysta & International Studies alumnus

“In this year’s PRINS programme five student teams have worked on the aQysta research questions. Each team was given the same starting point, but they all came up with their own solutions. When you have a regular consultant working for you, you get only one opinion, whereas now we have five different approaches. This gives aQysta the opportunity to compare and combine.

As an International Studies alumnus I am impressed with how the staff pulled the remote teaching off in such a short period of time. When the decision was made to move to online teaching, the staff went full throttle ahead and coordinated the client’s side of the programme without any delay. And the students put in so much time and effort, this is certainly worth mentioning. In spite of the unusual and challenging circumstances, they came up with a full-blown consultancy report, while at the same time writing their thesis.

I feel that this online semester was indeed an example of `practising International Studies in real life’. After all, the programme teaches students how to be flexible and to adapt to an ever-changing society and this semester, they did just that.”

Donna Mlyneck, 3rd year International Studies student, member of the aQysta consultancy team

“When I first learned that PRINS would be held entirely online, this was a shock. I was concerned about the lack of in-person meetings and the encounters on campus. I decided not to move back home to Germany but to stay in The Hague, as a lot of my friends decided to stay here as well. Also, here is a great working environment with a stable internet connection, something that proved to be very important during this semester.

Together with 13 team mates, I worked on the aQysta research questions, and I must say that everything went surprisingly well. Each week, we met on a fixed day via Skype, and we shared our weekly reports in Google docs, where every team member could access them. Our research coach Sarita Koendjbiharie organised extra online meetings, which was very supportive. The virtual teamwork brought some extra benefits: I learned new skills, including coordinating with a group and using online technology. These will be useful outside of the pandemic as well. 

All in all, I am really proud that as a team, we managed to develop a solid online presentation and a high-quality final report, in spite of the changed circumstances.”

Gina van Ling, lecturer International Studies and coach to the student teams that worked for Amnesty International

“This was my first year teaching and supervising the PRINS course, so this made it an interesting experience in its own right. The fact that almost the entire course was online, meant that it was even more challenging.

It was helpful, however, that I had already met and worked with the students in the first half of the semester. I knew who they were and what their interests were when we started working online. Still, the online experience obviously was very different from the normal situation. I’m just mentioning the lack of physicality – the real personal contact was entirely absent. This made it more complicated for me to get a sense of how the students were functioning as a team.

For the students, PRINS in normal circumstances already is a course that can be very stressful, as they really have to move out of their comfort zone. I tried to take away some of the stress by offering support where I could and by having them focus on the end results, while being flexible about intermediate deadlines. In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, they did really well, handing in good quality research reports and video presentations. I am proud of them!”

Julia Ivan, Senior Human Rights Officer at Amnesty International

“This was the first time Amnesty participated in PRINS and I can say it was a good experience. We had some fairly complicated research questions focusing on the shrinking civic space concerning human rights. We are looking for a tool or counter narrative to revive the theme of human rights in today’s polarised society. This issue we put before six student teams. The research reports they presented are all very different, with different assessments and different advices, which is really useful.

Several teams did a very good job on research and came up with interesting articles and books that we didn’t know at all. I was happy with the tangible and concrete advice in some of the reports, with detailed plans on how to better engage a younger generation in our work. In a way, the reports really were a wake-up call for us, they clearly showed that we need to make a stronger effort to involve the students’ age group.
As for the online character of this year’s PRINS course: we didn’t notice this at all, everything went smoothly. I feel that the students did a very good job, they are still so young and already so promising. Congratulations to them!”

Lara Franken, 3rd year International Studies student, member of the Amnesty International consultancy team

“Our team consisted of 15 members, and even before the Covid-19 pandemic we were worried that such a high number of people would be difficult to manage. We ended up organising ourselves in 5 sub teams, each with its own team leader. The sub teams were given individual research tasks, and the team leaders each week reported to each other. In addition, there were weekly online meetings for the entire team. This arrangement ensured that every voice was heard, which was important to us. Our coach, Maria Gabriela Palacio Ludeña, was available to give us support and advice, for which I am really grateful.

I am happy with our final report, as a team we went above and beyond what we needed to do to realise the course deliverables. A lot of people grew during the course, including myself. We learned to be supportive of each other from a remote distance, which is very different from a situation where you meet face to face. As a virtual team member, you need to be more proactive, to take the initiative in offering help. This was a really nice experience for me.”