The Faculty of Economics of the University of Gdańsk was visited by representatives of nine partner universities of the SEA-EU project, who came to Sopot for Staff Week - an event organised by the Centre for Foreign Languages of the University of Gdańsk. Topics of discussion included the promotion of multilingualism, the development of language competences and the need to establish a common SEA-EU language policy.

The Staff Week, co-organised by the University of Malta, was not only an opportunity to learn more about the SEA-EU 2.0 partner universities, their activities or innovations implemented in the field of language education and international cooperation but also a chance to establish a roadmap for Task 4.6 implementation teams.

The title of the international conference, which brought together SEA-EU alliance partners, was 'Promoting multilingualism, fostering English language competence and establishing a common SEA-EU language policy'.

The first day took place on May 29. The international audience was welcomed in their native languages by Marta Wass from CJO UG. The conference organisers, Director of the Centre for Foreign Languages and hostess of the event Alina Swebocka, and prof. Godfrey Baldacchino from the University of Malta, the leader of Task 4.6 of the SEA-EU 2.0 Project, then spoke.

- 'I would like to welcome you very warmly to the 3rd International Partnership Days, which this year is being held for the first time as a Staff Week in a post-pandemic reality. We feel proud and honoured that the CJO can be so actively involved in the internationalisation of our University. Promoting multilingualism, multiculturalism and the development of a common language policy for SEA-EU is a tremendous challenge for us, but also a natural environment that we strive to develop with outstanding commitment and dynamism, placing a firm emphasis on the quality of language education. A special guest of our event is the representation of the Ilya Mechnikov Odessa National University,' - said Alina Swebocka.

Later, the Rector of UG, prof. Piotr Stepnowski welcomed the gathered guests. He emphasised the uniqueness of the meeting - the presence of representatives of all nine partner universities of the SEA-EU project, forming the consortium of the European Maritime University.

The following lecture, entitled The sociolinguistic situation of Gdańsk Pomerania, was delivered by dr hab. Danuta Stanulewicz-Skrzypiec, prof. UG from the Institute of English and American Studies at the Faculty of Philology of Gdańsk University. In her speech, the scholar talked about the Kashubian language and why it is worth learning.

The second day of the conference was opened by the Dean of the Faculty of Economics, dr hab. Monika Bak, prof. UG. Afterwards, the participants were invited to a crash course in Polish language and networking, conducted by CJO UG lecturers: Renata Korzeniowska, Monika Gawin and dr Agnieszka Wysomierska-Tkacz. The students learnt how to introduce themselves in Polish, how to count, and how to use basic phrases such as thank you, sorry, I don't understand, bless you or help.

After the coffee break, it was time for the presentations of the SEA-EU partner universities, the presentation of Task 4.6 and the exercise of understanding the same sentence from multiple language perspectives.

This concluded the second, but not last, day of Staff Week. The entire event will be rounded off tomorrow with a panel of representatives from the business sector (State Street, Alexander Mann Solutions, Swarovsky, Sii) to answer questions about the needs of today's labour market with regard to the language competences of university graduates, as well as the impact of the latest trends related to AI on their future careers in the near and increasingly uncertain future.

It is worth mentioning that Staff Week was also an opportunity for international integration. Indeed, during the event, participants could take advantage of additional attractions prepared with them in mind, such as sightseeing in Sopot, the Oliwa campus of UG and Gdańsk. This was a sort of preparation for further activities related to creating a European super-campus (as planned by the European Commission) to meet the challenges of successive generations of universitas magistrorum et scholarium.