A great sense of humour is the key to group work and resilience. What do you get if you combine masters’ students from different universities and give them a task to develop a digital service? An unforgettable mobility week filled with misunderstanding, learning, and laughing together.

The skill of group work needs to be learned in practice

Higher education calls for educational opportunities that are designed to inspire the students, challenge the students’ comfort zones, and mobilize students to participate in common learning action. Moreover, working in the international and multidisciplinary teams is an embraced future professional skill (OECD 2019, World Economic Forum 2023,30). Blended Intensive Programmes (BIPs) is one example of this.

European higher education transformation has the focus on employability and mobility within the EU (European Commission 2019). BIPs are funded to foster mobility and collaborate among European universities by engaging in a process of co-learning and competence building. The changes in higher education (Miranda et al. 2021) entails the move away from the passive student role. For example, group work changes students to become active participants. ‘Peeragogy’ alludes towards collaborative learning among peers. Here, the teacher’s role changes towards the mentor, facilitator and provider of structure and instructions.

Working together is an essential part of today’s workplaces. BIPs enable bringing people and organizations together for shared learning and practise creative collaboration. At its best, connecting people enables ideas and experience exchange as well as co-creation. The skills of group work were practiced during the online period and on mobility week.

BIP Technologies and Businesses 2025

BIPs are mobility formats to advance internationalisation. Moreover, they enable cultural immersion, collaboration and international teamwork, interaction and adaptation to diverse situations and intercultural competencies (EDUFI 2024). BIPs offer exciting opportunities for both students and teachers to compare education with other European universities and provide compelling learning experiences. Participating in a BIP makes one a BIPster (Chydenius & Tossavainen 2024).

In a Master’s BIP called ‘Technologies and Businesses’ teachers from four countries and respective universities collaborate to provide a coherent BIP curriculum (Tossavainen & Seccardini 2024) that was executed in March 2025 at ISCTE University Institute of Lisbon. The mobility week was operationalized around challenge-based group work, visit to the Unicorn Green Hub and at the end of the week with the presentations of the group outcomes. The students come from three universities and countries, as the host university students seldom participate in the course.

Laurea is part of the PIONEER alliance of ten European higher education institutions (Laurea-ammattikorkeakoulu 2025). The aim of the alliance is to promote the strategic development of future cities through education. One form of cooperation between PIONEER partners is the development and organization of joint education offerings and learning contents, of which BIP is an example. The four universities involved with the BIP are: ISCTE Business School in Lisbon (the host), Tomas Bata University, Zlín, with 8 students, Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Vantaa, with 10 students, and Universite Gustave Eiffel, Paris, with 58 students. Laurea students participating in the BIP were from mostly from master’s degree programmes: Innovative Digital Services of the Future and Service Innovation and Design.

In the following subsections of this article, students describe their experiences of participating in the Technologies and Businesses BIP held in spring 2025. The following paragraphs have been written collaboratively by Laurea Master’s students.

From Group Work towards Collective Creativity

In this BIP, the mission for students was to reimagine ISCTE Lisbon as a smart, tech-enhanced campus. The mobility week allows participants to come together to accomplish a particular challenge set by the host University. The groups had one week in Lisbon to meet this challenge by designing an innovative digital service that transforms daily experiences on the campus for everyone: students, faculty, and staff.

Face-to-face activities transforms group work towards collective creativity. Group work combines the competences and together we create something that would be impossible to achieve alone. The work was led by the students and everyone in the group had a specific role. This has undisputed advantages: it enabled the utilization of diverse skills, knowledge, and experiences of individuals.

However, there were also some challenges to overcome: for example, language barriers and finding a connection between students that don’t practice collaboration. The cultural differences in the group working approaches: From Laurea student point of view, we observed issues like the low ability to group work and limited interest in schedule adherence. For some, it is ok to arrive whenever, despite the teamwork was based on the rules set by the team together. Even though we realized that the schedule is flexible, we still made sure to arrive on time every morning. Similarly, our patience was tested daily as the work and specially making the decisions took an incredibly long time. We learned that a zebra can’t change its stripes. The moments of frustration were overcome by moments of pure joy and companionship. It took some time for everyone to grow into their roles, but slowly the group work started to transform into collective creativity.

Working together

The BIP started with online lectures, and between them, all groups began to work in groups. In every group, we had 1-2 students from Laurea, 1-2 from Tomas Bata University (TBU) and 6-7 from Gustave Eiffel University (UGE). In the beginning of the BIP every group agreed on the rules and how to work online, e.g. which are the channels for the group work.

The use of software tools differs between universities; Laurea students were the most familiar with Microsoft Office, but others had totally different software tools. This was a little surprising. In Finland, higher education institutions provide students with licenses for Microsoft tools, which may not be the case elsewhere. The selection and use of tools may also be influenced by the fact that we – Laurea students – were significantly older than others; however, was it a generational difference?

While working on group project, UGE students felt the need to seek confirmation from either teachers or us senior students, whereas we and TBU students were like us and used to think independently and solve problems on our own. Whether this was a cultural difference or a result of age-related confidence, we cannot be certain.

Despite the differences and language challenges, forming a team and working together was surprisingly easy. Online collaboration had certainly played a significant role in creating a sense of familiarity, so, when we met in person for the first time, it felt as though we had already known each other for a long time. Even students with weaker language skills were able to participate more actively in face-to-face, as it was easier for others to assist with translation, and no one was judged based on their language skills.

There were noticeable differences in the use of AI, and it was utilized in various ways. While the UGE students tended to rely on AI to generate nearly finished outputs with little critical evaluation, Laurea students placed greater emphasis on independent thinking and source criticism. TBU students used it professionally. For example, among us, AI is used for brainstorming and ideating, but the final output is still our own creation. In general, we even have a feeling that using AI feels like cheating, albeit it has been used ethically.

What did we learn?

Cross-cultural understanding is a valuable skill in today’s world, and BIP allows us to practice it in real life. Throughout the week, we had the chance to observe how different work cultures influence decision-making and how work is organized. Some team members followed a systematic, planned approach, while others preferred a more flexible, free-flowing style. Finding common ground required effort, open conversations, and compromise. In addition, language barriers created some challenges in group work, but luckily it was possible to overcome with an open communication and positive attitude.

Beyond cultural differences, the variation in age and work experience also added a unique dynamic to the project. We realized just how much you can learn by collaborating with people from different ages, backgrounds and perspectives. It gave us a deeper appreciation for how valuable interdisciplinary collaboration is and how it can really broaden one’s thinking. This wasn’t just another academic task – it was a meaningful step toward understanding international collaboration.

Closing remarks

At the end of the week, it was fascinating to see how the same project challenge produces different outcomes. Final pitches were interesting and each of them had excellent ideas. All in all, the experience was unforgettable. Participating in the BIP increased our skills and resilience and teaches us the essentials of international group work. We all learned much – about ourselves and others.

Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. – Henry Ford

References

• Chydenius, T. & Tossavainen, P. J.2024. BIPsters advancing international understanding. Laurea Journal.
• EDUFI. 2024. European mobility for higher education 2021–2027 – general information. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
• European Commission. 2019. ”Education and Teaching. Education in EU.” Retrieved April 23, 2019, from https://commission.europa.eu/education_en. .
• Laurea-ammattikorkeakoulu. 2025. Eurooppalainen PIONEER-verskosto edistää tulevaisuuden kaupunkien kestävää kehitystä. Retrieved 26 September, 2025.
• Miranda, J., et al.2021. The core components of education 4.0 in higher education: Three case studies in engineering education. Computers and Electrical Engineering. Computers and Electrical Engineering 93.
• OECD. 2019. OECD Future of education and skills 2030. Retrieved 28 April, 2025.
• Tossavainen, P. J. & Seccardini, G.2024. First-time #bipsters on the loose! exploring the first steps and challenges of new #bipsters in their exciting journey. Iceri 2024, Sevilla, Spain. , ICERI.
• World Economic Forum 2023. Putting Skills First: A Framework for Action. Cologny/Geneva Switzerland, World Economic Forum. 2023: 30.