The Making of a summer school: 30 years of EISS in the South of Norway

In 1988, the municipality of Kristiansand and the Agder College started to examine possibilities for establishing a “summer university” – thereby adding a fourth ‘S’ to the College’s informal logo of being located in Norway’s number one summer town right on the shores of the sunny riviera of Sørland – namely, studies (De fire S’er). Until today, the European Integration Summer School is the most comprehensive summer school in Norway focussing on matters pertaining to integration and, perhaps today even more, differentiation in Europe. It studies both EU and European integration more broadly from the outside – albeit from an outside-almost-inside.

An early example of co-creation in Sørlandet

One idea at the time of its establishment was to add an additional element to the municipality’s partnerships with its partner cities of Münster, Germany (since 1967) and Orléans, France (since 1973). A summer school with experienced guest lecturers from both cities and universities could just do that trick: “The study program reflects not only Norway’s increasing interest for Europe and European integration but also the ever-growing Norwegian participation in all sorts of European activities in trade, economy, culture and politics” (ADHnytt 1/1991, p. 3).

Facing "New Europe" in 1989

The “International Summer University in Kristiansand” took off in early 1989 at the time when a wind of change was toppling several communist regimes in Eastern Europe and eventually brought down the Wall in Berlin – this meant that the Agder College (Agder distriktshøgskole, ADH) and its Center for continued education (stiftelsen Senter for videreutdanning ved ADH, SEVI) were obliged to redefine their vision in light of an increasing number of contacts and agreements with partners from Central and Eastern Europe. ‘New Europe’ was at the doorsteps. These reasons – combined with the need to revisit Norway’s relationship with the European Community – were at the heart of the ambition according to Jan Duvaland, then administrative director of SEVI. Finally, on February 28, 1990, at a press conference in Oslo, the “European Academy” was founded– the core of what was set to become the European Integration Summer School (EISS). In 1996, for example, the summer school programs of ADH included the Examen philosophicum (June 10 – August 5), a propaedeutic course for engineers (forkurs for ingeniører, July 1 – August 9) and Europeisk integrasjon (July 1 – August 12) as the “summer university’s flagship”.

High expectations 

Prof. Gerhard Wittkämper, a legal scholar from the University of Münster and a guest lecturer at the start of the summer school, recalls: “I will never forget the solemn opening of the first year of the summer school with the rector of the college, the mayor and other imminent persons from Kristiansand. Expectations were high, participants were very motivated, and EISS was extraordinarily well organized. I have come to enjoy the well-known Norwegian hospitality during long summer nights and the discussions with Norwegian colleagues”. Political scientist and well-known European Studies scholar from the University of Münster, Prof. Wichard Woyke, who has taught at the summer school for ten years, affirms: “When teaching at the summer school, I never came to foreigners – I always met with friends”.

In terms of financing, the summer school started as a tuition-based program organized by SEVI – since 1995 the eight-week summer school was supported by the Norwegian Ministry for Education also in recognition of its contribution as a “trimester” – offering a complement to the existing the semester system. Still, today, as a 30 ECTS specialization taught during the summer (and including a web-based teaching course during the fall), EISS can support students by putting a semester’s work into the summer. By choosing this summer school, students can either make room in their study program for a longer traineeship period or study abroad or to simply finish in time! Of course, today, the study program has become tuition-free.

The study brochure from 1999, with the new name of the study programme.

Cooperating with top scholars from around the world

Since 2000, the college and later the university have integrated the summer school into their regular program – EISS is now part of one of the specialisations available at the Department of Political Science and Management, the other being in public policy. At various occasions of its thirty years of operation, EISS has also benefited from funding through the European Union’s Erasmus programs, once designated a Jean Module and presently one of the core activities of the Jean Monnet Chair in European Governance (2017-20). The summer school has expanded its scope and includes in addition to local staff a number of very renowned scholars and practitioners. Some of the top academics which have taught at the summer school in the past include Jeffrey Checkel, Desmond Dinan, Hussein Kassim, Sandra Lavenex, Chris Lord, John Peterson, Simona Piattoni, Mark Polack, Claudio Radaelli, Sabine Saurugger and Frank Schimmelfennig – to mention but a few. It has become a main feature and trademark of the summer school today: matching excellent students from Norway, Europe and the world with top scholars of their respective disciplines, maintaining an interdisciplinary outlook (drawing on law, politics, economics and public administration) – combined with some exemplary training in method skills and research design. Quite a few students have benefited from this “long summer” as the European Voice stated in 2014 in a review of summer school in Europe.

An integrated part of UiA

The summer school has come a long way from fuelling life into city partnerships, being a testbed for experimenting with a trimester system to morphing into an additional element in the university’s vast toolbox fostering internationalization and Europeanization for that matter. Today, it is equipping students with unique insights, working methods, and support for embarking on highly research-focused MA theses. But clearly it remains a key intellectual arena at Norway’s southernmost place of mind: UiA.

Since 1990, hundreds of students have spent their summer at the European Integration Summer School. Here, the group of participants in 2019. (Photo: UiA)