Case Competition, using academic knowledge in practice

From the 22^nd and 26^th of March, the fourth flagship initiative of the Strategic Partnership InnovEd4TS was hosted virtually at Aarhus University. Invited experts from four Circle U. universities and the University of Lisbon had the opportunity to witness the Case Competition “Stay relevant” that Aarhus University had set up for its students enabling them to develop their transferable skills.

Case Competition, “Stay Relevant” at Aarhus University

The Case Competition “Stay relevant” is an annual initiative targeted at bachelor students from the School of Communication and Culture at Aarhus University as well as the study programme Strategic Communication. In collaboration with their peers, the students use their academic knowledge to find solutions to issues that a variety of local businesses are facing. The initiative is supported by the Aarhus Municipality and the Aarhus Business Council.

This year, the competition lasted 4 days. Experts from Louvain, Oslo, Lisbon, Paris and Humboldt could witness the sessions of the Case Competition during the field mission. The students were introduced to “design thinking” by Lasse Chor, external consultant from his own company, Happy 42, a Danish Consultant Firm in communication. The students worked in groups together with Lasse and professors on study cases that were collected by Aarhus Municipality from local businesses. Students worked collectively and provided solutions to the challenges. They were then trained to pitch their solution to a panel of judges made up of professors from Aarhus University, representatives of Aarhus municipality and from local businesses. The judges evaluated groups according to their ability to pitch but also on the proposed solutions.  The competition counted with three prizes: the audience prize given by the audience vote, the WTF prize (for creativity) and the jury prize (on the solution and the pitch).

Transferable Skills developed in the Case Competition “Stay relevant”

The case competition at Aarhus University focused on three transferable skills:             

Strategic Partnership InnovEd4TS (Innovative Education for Transferable Skills), is five member universities of Circle U. Alliance : Humboldt University, UCLouvain, University of Oslo, University of Aarhus and Université Paris Cité along with the University of Lisbon

For more information, visit the Circle U.website

Creativity

Students had the opportunity to develop their creativity, the focal point of this course. They had to put a great deal of effort in brainstorming enabling to deliver on time and take collective decisions.

Teamwork

Another skill that students were able to develop according to the experts is teamwork. In fact, this project highly relies on the ability of students to get together and design solutions as a team.

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking was also at stake. Students had to integrate feedback and refine their work. They had to gain awareness about their own skills and shortcomings.

Drawings by Benoit Raucent

Additional Skills … thanks to Covid

Experts were very positive about the Case competition initiative. They highlighted how the students could develop their skills in relation to designing processes. Students learn how to pitch ideas and show potential employers what they can do. This initiative allows them to using theoretical knowledge to solve real business problems such as developing a communication plan/strategy for a hostel and event space post covid-19 or update the image-related communication of a science museum. The students also have the opportunity to learn more about business life and gain insights into critical thinking.

In addition to creativity, teamwork and critical thinking, the case competition helped students develop oral communication and problem solving. Students work on their oral communication skills with the aim to be convincing when pitching their projects to the jury. This year, students had to enlarge and gain additional skills due to the pandemic of COVID-19 as they pitched on Zoom, which gave them the opportunity to experiment new ways and approaches for their presentations.

Bridging the gap between university studies and working life

The involvement of external stakeholders be it business or local authorities is key in the project. The municipality acts like a moderator and is responsible for prospection, focusing on finding small, local companies.  The companies play an active part in the case competition as they draft the cases, answer the students’ questions and judge the pitches. Lasse Chor, the Moderator of the Case Competition initiative and external consultant emphasized the importance for students to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and the experience gained on the fieldwork: “The knowledge gained at the university combined with the experience in the first years of the career is the basis for doing something creative.”

Students’ Perspective: from theory to pitching solutions 

Two students, Nanna Egeberg Andersen and Anne-Sofie Lyngbak, took part in the meeting with the experts. Their case was related to the Natural History Museum of the City of Aarhus. Their group was made up with two other students, Anna Ræbild and Magnus Kræpping. They highlighted the fact that they very much enjoyed working with Lasse Chor as his personality and sense of humor helped them work together on the cases. Additionally, they grasped the importance of using their theoretical knowledge to make a presentation in front of the company. They acknowledged that it can be challenging to present a pitch in a limited time frame. It required them to adapt their vocabulary. The exercise served as a way to analyse an extensive amount of information in an extremely short time span. 

Looking ahead : Integrating awards & Internationalisation

Experts found that the format of the project was very inspiring. They suggested that an additional prize might be added to the competition: the peer-review award, which would go more in detail than the audience award, which is essentially a vote on the moment. This would have the students reviewing the project of their peers and develop more critical thinking skills. Another way to do so would be to add a final assignment that would consist in self-assessing what they have learned.

Experts were enthusiastic about the possibility that this initiative could be internationalised through the involvement of international students or by becoming a Circle U. initiative that would enable the entire project to go from local to global.