The fame of summer cannot be put into question. Being by far the busiest time for holidays, summer is also that time when days are long and nights short, but both of them last enough to provide you with good times.
Summer is also the most successful time of the year for cinemas, entertainment parks and others. So, if you’re not planning to leave the city of your studies, then you have plenty of occasions to enjoy it. But, when you’re studying abroad, summer passes quickly. Maybe you won’t wake up, as the song says, when September ends, but at the beginning and realize you could’ve also use the three months to learn something more.
So, whether you are still a student or already a graduate, you most probably have some free time in summer and want to use it beneficially for your career or studies. In this case, one smart choice to make is a summer school!
Here are some great short term courses to match any need:
Short Course Drawing and Painting,
University of Edinburgh, London, UK
The exploration of drawing and painting techniques and the use of a range of established and methods and moods will enable students to cultivate their own personal visual language and personal ideas regarding locations and other aspects of painting and drawing.
You will have 11 courses to learn from, including Abstract Painting, Creating the Illusion of Space, Exploration in Watercolour, Gouache and Ink, The City in Word and Image and you will know more of Urban Expressionists. This is one artistic way of enjoying your summertime.
Short Course Food Design
L'École de Design Nantes Atlantique, Nantes, France
This two-weeks programme includes a workshop focused on Eco-innovation in design, guided visits through Nantes and the surrounding areas and round trips to the workshop location. You will develop your own project in adding value to local products or food production waste recovery.
You will quickly become familiar with the food industry and experiment cuisine with a well-known chef. These will be spiced up by visits to a biscuit factory and to vegetable farmers. In other words, you will become familiar with cuisine, through both theory and practice.
Short Course Introduction to Experience Design
Breda University of Applied Sciences, Breda, the Netherlands
This 5-day programme applies the Imagineering methodology, and more specifically Experience Design, on real life challenges. The first 3 days are an immersive dive into a hands-on and experiential world of discovery and learning in the fields of experience design, co-creation and innovation.
Keywords: extraordinary challenges, impulsive celebration, the element of surprise and honest reflection on self and collective learning. After this deep introduction about the Imagineering methodology, a field trip to an inspiring company will be organized and a day with a social program.
Short Course Game. Play. Design: ReThink
Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
You have 26 days at your disposal to learn the most out of this intensive course, with the aid of two internationally known guest lecturers. At an interdisciplinary level, you will learn of digital games, game play and digital design. You will go through media and information studies, educational and interaction design, aesthetics and even economy and rhetoric.
This programme is not just about theory and practice, but it also includes analysis, methodology and the development of product-oriented skills. You will take advantage of the “learning by doing” platform and, once you’ve relaxed enough by playing, you will have two final assignments of “design-concepts” and “proof-of-concept”. After you will have your presentation at a local exhibition, you can start designing what others will play.
Certificate Urban Walkability & Streetscape Design
TU Berlin, Berlin, Germany
This one-month course will give you a different perspective on the streets. You will learn about neighbourhoods, architecture and outdoor design in the capital of Germany. The purpose of this summer course is to help you improve the public life in neighbourhoods and their environment, from the point of view of public health and urban planning.
While the final beneficiaries of this field are communities, you will take the best out of architectural development and focus on problems such as air pollutants, emissions and the negative impacts of rapid changes.
You will take part in input lectures, computer-based research, field study, practical workshops, group presentations and note-and-vote techniques in decision making.