Significant international cooperation with Israel
Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra (UKF) has been successfully developing international cooperation also within the Erasmus+ KA107 program. Among other countries, Israel became partner of our university based on the working contacts established with two university workplaces - one located in Tel Aviv (for our Faculty of Arts) and the other one in the Negev (for the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Informatics). For the implementation of international cooperation with this country, UKF was awarded a significant Erasmus+ grant based on the international activities developed with Israel by Prof. Zdenka Gadušová (Faculty of Arts), Prof. Roman Králik (Faculty of Arts) and Prof. Zuzana Krumpálova (Faculty of Natural Sciences and Informatics).
On December 7 – 14, 2022, the partner institution Kibbutzim College of Education Technology and the Arts in Tel Aviv was visited by Vice-rector for international relations Doc. PhDr. Martina Pavlíková, PhD. Vice-rector was accompanied by prof. PaedDr. Zdenka Gadušová, CSc. and prof. ThDr. PaedDr. Roman Králik, Ph.D. who participated in Erasmus+ Staff Training mobility.
Prof. Roman Králik co-authored with Dr. Marií Roubalová (Hussite Theological Faculty, Charles University, Prague) has created a successful, so far six-part textbook Fifty-five of the most frequent words of the Tanakh intended for a wide range of students of Hebrew at universities in the Czech and Slovak Republic as well as for self-study of students interested in learning Hebrew language. He also published several databased studies devoted to Jewish culture, various social and theological interpretations of the Tanakh and the topic of the Holocaust.
During a visit to the Kibbutzim College of Education Technology and the Arts in Tel Aviv, the Vice-rector for international relations was received by the Rector of the mentioned partner institution, Prof. Smadar Donitsa-Schmidt. During the work meeting, which was also attended by the Head of the Department for International Relations, Dr. Rinat Arvin and Dean of the Faculty of Education, Prof. Irit Feldman, the new Erasmus+ inter-institutional agreement for the period 2022 – 2025 was signed at the institutional level. Prof. Tsafi Timor, prof. Zdenka Gadušová and Prof. Roman Králik were also invited to the negotiations on continuation of international cooperation between both our institutions. Cooperation with the mentioned institution has been agreed in the field of education, languages and religious studies.
The business trip of the Vice-rector for international relations and other UKF representatives in Israel was preceded by a work visit by Prof. Tsafi Timor at UKF in Nitra at the end of the summer semester of the academic year 2021/2022. Cooperation with Prof. Tsafi Timor was established more than 10 years ago during a conference organized by the Department of English and American Studies of the Faculty of Arts of UKF in Nitra. Working contacts with the named professor were maintained for a long time by the methodologists of the department, namely Doc. Jana Harťanská (currently at Department of English Language and Culture of the Faculty of Education) and Prof. Zdenka Gadušová. Together with colleagues and students from the Kibbutzim College of Education, they implemented an interesting online project dedicated to the pedagogical practice of students. During the semester, students of both institutions received internship assignments and supporting texts for them, which were supposed to help them during the internship and writing notes on the topic of the internship. Subsequently, during online meetings, they exchanged their observations and knowledge and discussed them. Based on the findings from the completed project, a joint publication of Doc. Jana Harťanská and prof. Timor was created.
During her last visit in Nitra, Prof. TsafiTimor shared with the staff of the Department of English and American Studies her experience of working with pupils with developmental learning disorders. Furthermore, very interesting was her lecture on the mentioned issue offered to doctoral students of our Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Education held on July 5, 2022. The topic of the lecture attracted not only doctoral students (both full-time and part-time), but also colleagues, who came in large numbers and filled almost the entire lecture room 129 in the Faculty of Arts on Stefanikova street, despite the fact that the lecture was held on advanced term at the end of the semester.
Exchanging experiences in the field of working with pupils with special educational needs is very useful not only for future teachers, but also for teachers in practice, as the number of such children integrated in schools has been increasing each year. Therefore, UKF will continue in cooperation with Prof. Tsafi Timor in this area and expand it to include also the training of training and introductory teachers for the introduction of future and novice teachers.
Prof. Tsafi Timor liked Faculty of Arts of our university and the city of Nitra itself very much, and she even expressed the interest in working at UKF as a visiting professor for one semester.
International cooperation with Israel significantly strengthens the international reputation of UKF in Nitra and is in the line with our university's internationalization strategy.
Text: Doc. PhDr. Martina Pavlíková, PhD., R – Vice-rector for international relations, Prof. PaedDr. Zdenka Gadušová, CSc., FF – Department of English and American Studies, Faculty of Arts
Photo: Doc. PhDr. Martina Pavlíková, PhD., R – Vice-rector for international relations
Photo: Doc. PhDr. Martina Pavlíková, PhD., R – Vice-rector for international relations
Translation: Ing. Katarína Butorová, PhD., R – Department for International Relations
