BIP in Poland: part 1

Vol 27, Issue 25, 17 April 2025

Last week, I got a great chance to participate in the on-site part of the Blended Intensive Program (BIP) in Gdańsk, Poland. The program also included a virtual part, which took place from 17th to 21st of March. The program’s topic is “Towards sustainable regions: balancing tourism, local business, and communities.”  As a person who is extremely interested in sustainability and realises its importance in today’s world, I was fascinated by the program and its content.

Application process

I received an information about the program from our teacher in XAMK. Although there it was mentioned that only students at least from the second year can apply, I emailed them, and they responded that all applicants will be considered. In terms of requirements for the application, we had to submit our CV and motivation letter directly to the teacher’s email address. Afterwards, within a couple of weeks, I got a confirmation email that I was selected to go.

Preparation

Regarding documentation, I would not say that there was a hustle at all. In my opinion, the assistance from XAMK’s side was incredible and all the instructions were pretty clear and understandable. We had to make grant agreement, fill in the SoleMove form, obligation form, and that’s pretty much it.

Virtual part

As the virtual part we had four modules: Sustainable Development as a Megatrend, Sustainable Tourism, Sustainable Energy, and Sustainable Development at Regional and Local Level. Different lecturers were telling us about various aspects of sustainability, EU regulations towards it, sustainable development goals, green energy and methods of raising people’s awareness about it. It was all made in an interesting and interactive way, which made studying fun and pleasant. Although, I am not going to lie, it was also pretty exhausting, because lectures took place from 6 to 10:30 pm by Finnish time. Nonetheless, most of the lecturers were pretty international, and we also had our own representatives from XAMK giving a lecture about sustainable tourism in Finland, Santa Claus Park and national nature trails.

Accommodation

We were told that the faculty of the university is not located directly in Gdańsk, but in Sopot, which is a little bit more connected to the sea. Three other XAMK students and I decided to book an Airbnb flat together, in order to save more money and make it more collective. Therefore, we have all come to the mutual decision of booking a flat in Sopot, within a walking distance to the faculty. However, to our surprise and frustration, at the end all of our lectures happened to be in the main library of the university of Gdańsk, so we still had to travel there by the local train. My tip for the students would be to double-check the location of the on-site part directly from the host university representatives.

Student life

I know that there were a lot of students from the program that were going out almost every evening, but I personally was not that interested, so I did not really attend, but anyway for those interested it is pretty accessible and affordable to go out in Poland. Also, there are some nice places with karaoke and other concert programmes. An addition could be to visit some museums or other cool places, just like my flatmates and I did. So, in the free from studies time we went to the World War 2 Museum, and it was fascinating there. Additionally, I went to the Old Town and a couple of other stores. I also know that some students went to the shopping malls, since the prices in Poland are way lower than in Finland.