On April 4, 2017, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the University of Economics in Bratislava (UEB) and the International Investment Bank (IIB). The signing ceremony took place at the UEB premises in Bratislava between the rector Ferdinand Daňo and the director of the IIB European Regional Office (ERO) in Bratislava Igor Barát.

The memorandum is the first of its kind between the IIB and an EU based university.

The document defines options for a comprehensive cooperation between parties, specifically to implement research projects especially with a focus on economic development and integration in the Bank’s member states. It is expected that the IIB’s experts will be involved in the educational process in specialized areas, including the delivery of trainings and seminars.

An important direction of the cooperation will be the use of the Bank as a base for the professional training for students and teaching staff of the UEB — for internships and training and the guidance about current eceononic topics for the BA, MA PhD theses and further consultations by the IIB’s experts. The parties also examine options to organize joint educational programmes in the area of the advanced professional training and top up the education of IIB’s employees, as well as an exchange of analytical and research data.

The Professor Daňo outlined the significance of cooperation with such IFIs as the IIB, which “can further contribute to increasing of quality and internationalisation of education and research at the UEB.” He added, that “universities are not just about memorizing things, but they should lead students to critical and independent thinking, to democratic values and humanism.“ The head of the UEB also mentioned that the cooperation with the IIB as another emerging option for students to be successful not only at home, but also in various international institutions.

“It is already two years since the IIB opened its first ever foreign regional representative office, here in the Slovak capital. It is more than natural that besides supporting business projects in the area of economic cooperation we are interested in being engaged in the area of research and education. Partnering in this area with the UEB was just a logical choice,“ – commented I. Barát. The director of the ERO said that the practical cooperation could begin with some lectures of IIB experts in the UEB, an exchange of expertise and enlisting UEB students in the IIB trainee programmes.

The IIB is intending to continue the expansion of its partnerships with the leading financial universities in its member states.

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University of Economics in Bratislava (UEB) is the oldest economic university in Slovakia, founded in 1940.