Board of European Students of Technology

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Image:Image-Board of European Students of Technology Logo.gif

Logo of BEST

Board of European Students of Technology (BEST) is an international, non-governmental, non-political, non-profit student organisation. It strives for empowered diversity by developing students of technology, making them more internationally minded by encouraging their mobility and intercultural communication.

It currently (as of October 2006) consists of 74 local BEST groups in 29 countries around Europe with more than 1800 active members.

They have an online job fair with more than 8000 CVs of Engineering students from all over Europe.

In 2005 they organised:

78 learning and leisure events
17063 applications for these events
3 educational symposia
2 general meetings

1 History
2 Activities
3 Structure
4 Partner organisations
5 External links

[edit] History

The idea of BEST was born in May 1987 in Stockholm (Sweden) during a European conference for students of physics and mathematics. The outcome of the conference was a decision to organise an International Week every six months in a different country during which the interaction between European students would be developed.

The second International Week was held in Grenoble (France, March 1988). This meeting involved students not only from physics and mathematics but also from other areas of competence. The meeting in Grenoble was followed by an International Week held in Eindhoven (the Netherlands). However, the first meeting held exclusively for BEST was in Berlin (Germany) in April 1989. There it was decided that BEST would consist of a Board, a General Assembly and members. Taking part in this meeting were delegates from all over Europe: Barcelona, Berlin, Bologna, Budapest, Eindhoven, Grenoble, Helsinki, Lisbon, Ljubljana, London, Louvain-la-Neuve, Paris, Stockholm, Trondheim, Turin, Vienna, Warsaw and Zurich.

At this meeting BEST was officially founded with the aim to promote exchanges and communication between European Students of Technology. In November 1990, in the meeting in Budapest, the Summer Programme appeared a set of two week courses all over Europe. In the summer of 1991, 13 summer courses were launched. The first three years this Programme was supported by the TEMPUS programme of the European Union.

The association kept growing, new members joined and new projects arose. During the XIV General Assembly in Tallinn (Estonia) it was decided that BEST should apply, together with CESAER and SEFI, to set up the H3E Thematic Network under the European Community's SOCRATES-programme. This Thematic Network was officially established in September 1996 to work upon the future of Engineering Education. This made H3E the first Thematic Network where students participate as equal partners.

During the XV General Assembly in Belgium, BEST started a partnership with the German student-association bonding-studenteninitiative e.V., thus recognising each others activities and setting up a framework for co-operation. Since 2002 BEST also cooperates with the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students (CFES).

Currently, March 2007, BEST consists of 74 BEST groups while organising more than 100 events per year.

[edit] Activities

BEST Courses are the core activity of BEST. These are events about one to two weeks in length, uniting students of technology from all over Europe to study a technological subject. However, while these subjects are of an attractive and innovative nature, mixing various topics in engineering education, education on itself is not the only goal of these events: Equally important are expanding horizons, improving cultural understanding and in general providing European students of technology with the opportunity to experience something unique for little cost.

The quality and openness of BEST Courses are important to distinguish BEST from other international student organisations. Any engineering student at a university that has a BEST Group can apply to BEST Courses, without the need to become a member of BEST: As such, BEST provides a service not only to its members, but to all (engineering) students of associated universities. Furthermore, BEST Courses are complying to a high standard. In a Course, participants will have all food, lodging, travel costs during the course, cultural activities and an exciting academic programme for the full duration of the course supplied. Almost every BEST group organises such a course every year.

Participation fees for BEST Courses are low, and often even zero. The maximum participation fee for a two-week BEST Course is 45 euros and even less for students from many Central and Eastern European countries.

Apart from the core activities of BEST, BEST groups are organising further activities like job fairs, parties or engineering competitions.

[edit] Structure

[edit] Board

The Board is constitued by six members elected once per year at the General Assembly. The Board includes the following staff:

President
Treasurer
Secretary
Vice-president for external services
Vice-president for internal support
Vice-president for Local Group support

[edit] International Committees

BEST has six committees that take care of specific tasks, as follows:

Educational Committee (EduCo): working on relations with institutions regarding education in Europe and supervising the symposia about education
External Events Committee (EEC): supervising the organisation of external events of BEST, like Summer Courses or Competitions
Financial Team (finTeam): setting up cooperations with companies and other institutions for BEST
Information Technology Committee (ITC): in charge of all computer-related aspects, including website
Marketing Committee (markeTeam): creates and improves marketing of BEST
Training Interested Group (TIGro): supervising training of members of BEST

[edit] BEST groups

Map of Europe with BEST groups

A BEST Group is an association of BEST members at the same university. These groups are responsible for promoting and organising the activities of BEST at their university. Apart from the core activities of BEST, BEST groups are organising further activities like jobfairs, parties or engineering competitions.

BEST is present in 29 countries at the following universities: