European Union Policies

From September till December I followed the minor European Union Policies at ASIS International School. I will tell you something about the content of this minor and I will give you my opinion about it. But first I will start with telling something about myself because that is important for the fact that I think that everybody can do this minor and it is very fun to do so! My background lays in Integrated Safety and Security Management. I follow this study at the Avans School in 's-Hertogenbosch. In my fourth year I was asked to choose a minor.

My choice was European Union Policies in Breda because I thought it was important to have more knowledge about European legislation. My own study did not give a lot of information about the subject while it is important legislation because the supremacy that European legislation has over National legislation. Furthermore, I needed a little bit of a challenge so I chose this minor because of the English skills that I would develop.

European Union Policies works with problem solved education. Every week you read a text about the material that you need to learn for that week. From the text we composed learning goals that should be answered and discussed the week after. This way of education helps the student with understanding the material. It is a nice way to keep on track. You can't get behind and therefore it is easier to learn for the exams.

During the minor you will go on a great excursion to Brussels, Luxembourg and Strassburg. During the excursion you will visit the European Commission, the European Parliament, The Committee of the Regions, the European Court of Human Rights, and even more! It is a four day excursion with also a lot of free time to enjoy the visited cities! The only people that don't like this excursion are the other guests in the hotels where we stay, but what the hell.

The skill trainings negotiations and debating are fun but can be better performed. At first I will inform you that our class existed of 34 students, that's a lot! During negotiations we only learned a little about how to negotiate, but that is not enough to understand how to negotiate. It is the same as learning how to drive: you should practise, practise, practise. In my study Integrated Safety and Security Management I learned how to negotiate by practising. That is why I can make this comment based on experience. Furthermore, in our debating class we practised. Although, the class was overloaded and we couldn't practise a lot, it was helpful. It was only a pity that this skill didn't had a longer duration (we only practised twice).

So, I told you about my experience of the minor European Union Policies. The way of education is very helpful to make the material your own. Also, there will be a fun excursion of four days to Luxembourg, Brussels and Strassburg. Because of a full class of 34 students the debating and negotiations trainings couldn't be practised well. Therefore, I would suggest to divide the classes into two separate classes during these skill trainings.