An exchange trip involving students from Strathclyde Business School and Dauphine University, Paris, recently took place, helping students gain and exchange insights into energy management in Scotland and France.
Students on the MSc Global Energy Management (GEM) programme at Strathclyde and the MSc Energy, Finance and Carbon at Dauphine have been working on the planning of the trip, the 2015 Energy Masters Exchange Programme, since November. They made trips to each other's universities at the beginning of March. The Strathclyde students visited Paris first, from March 5-8. Their trip involved visiting a waste incinerator plant on the outskirt of Paris and taking part in a conference on nuclear power economics.
The Paris students travelled to Glasgow from March 12-15 and were welcomed with a reception in the Centre for Corporate Connections in the Livingstone Tower before attending a conference on Future Cities. Glasgow City Council hosted an impressive civic reception for the exchange programme at the City Chambers and the group also visited Whitelees Wind Farm. Both groups were treated to cultural visits too, with Versailles and Kelvingrove Museum two places on the itinerary.
MSc GEM student Max Crawford said, "We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Paris which included time to take in the wonderful city itself and build new relationships with students who have similar interests.
"All the hard work from everyone involved on both sides of the exchange paid off as the two trips were a resounding success. Personally, I have found the programme to be an excellent means of meeting professionals, members of staff, and fellow students in a setting different to the classroom.
"I have enjoyed sharing discussion with people involved with, and interested in the energy industry, both professionally and academically. I have forged lasting relationships with my fellow students, from the GEM course and those from Dauphine.
"Considering the potential future careers we all have in store following our Masters degrees, these relationships may prove invaluable. The programme was also great fun and if future students from either course considers continuing this tradition then I thoroughly recommend they do so."
Nicolas Peraudeau, a student from Dauphine University, commented, "The energy management exchange programme is definitely a valuable experience for our masters. We learned a great deal on our countries' visions on the energy issues of tomorrow through the organised conferences with professionals and also got to exchange our thoughts with each other in a more informal setting during our daily cultural visits. We will encourage Dauphine students to keep organising it in the future."
Strathclyde student Max added, "We owe special thanks to Nicolas Peraudeau and his fellow Dauphine students; Kathleen Tyrrell, Stuart McIntyre, Richard Bellingham, and Robert Rogerson from Strathclyde Business School; administration and catering staff at the University of Strathclyde for providing us with such excellent facilities and looking after us; Yasser Helmy (CISCO), Gavin Slater (Glasgow City Council), and Dominic Sims (Iberdrola) all of whom came to talk to us at the Future Cities conference; Glasgow City Chambers; and Whitelee Windfarm."