Each fall semester, students at Fudan University can select Nordic Studies as one of their elective classes. Nordic Studies is taught by researchers from our member universities who specialize in various fields that give an insight into Nordic culture and societies, including such topics as the Nordic welfare state, Nordic cinema and literature, the history of the five countries and how they have related to each other historically, and more. Ultimately, the content of the course depends on the three organizing universities. 

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the course was organized in an online format in 2020-2021, in hybrid format in 2022, and was back to offline mode in 2023.

You can find the course program for 2023 here

We are currently looking for organizing institutions for the 2024 course. If you or your institution has an interest in joining this year’s course, please contact us by March 11, 2024. You can do this by emailing the Nordic Centre Programme Manager: veli-matti.palomaki(at)formin.fi.

Read a Handbook on participating in the Nordic Studies as a Nordic institution/researcher here

The course aims to familiarize students with the political, economic, legal, and social systems of the Nordic countries. Lecturers for the course come from different disciplines and provide students with varying perspectives to analyze Nordic societies and cultures.

This course is organized by one of the Nordic Centre’s member universities with contributions from two other member universities every year. It is taught on undergraduate level as a part of Fudan University’s liberal arts education and has run in its current format for one semester each autumn since 2011.

Students:

The course is announced in the spring before the semester ends and information will be made available through the normal course announcement channels at Fudan. It is only Fudan students who can participate. Expected number of participants: 30-40 (preferably third or fourth year undergraduate students). The course is taught in English, and therefore students are required to have a good command of both oral and written English.

Credits:

The course awards two credits to registered students. From September to early December, there are 12 weeks of teaching (36 hours), two sessions each week.

Exam and Grading:

The final grade depends 30 % on taking part in class, and 70 % on the final paper.

The word count should be at least 1,500 and at most 2,000, not including references or footnotes.

A paper-writing seminar will be held in December.

BUSINESS AND INNOVATION IN CHINA

After returning to a fully on-site mode in 2023, the summer course Business and Innovation in China will again be held in Shanghai from July 1 to July 12, 2024.

The course includes academic lectures, practitioners' guest talks, company visits, teamwork exercises as well as individual assignments through which the course takes its participants on an exciting journey full of discoveries about China and what doing business and innovation here involves. This journey will lead through theory and practice of various organizational levels, business processes and complex contexts surrounding them.

Read more: 

Business and Innovation in China 2024 presentation

Course syllabus (preliminary)

Main instructor:

Associate Professor Dmitrij Slepniov, Aalborg University

Member institutions are responsible for handling applications for their own students. The deadline for submitting chosen candidates to the Nordic Centre was March 1, 2024. Students were to submit their applications to the international offices before this deadline. The admissions have now been confirmed.

You can read the original call for applications below:

You can apply by contacting the international office (or similar unit) at your home university, if your university is a member.  

The course Business and Innovation in China is designed for Master level students, but graduating Bachelor students may also be enrolled. If a member university does not have enough nominations of students with Bachelor degree studies completion, they can nominate candidates at the last year of their Bachelor studies. Note that priority is given to master students.

You can apply to the course regardless of your major, but the difficulty of the course will naturally be higher if you are not already somewhat acquainted with the academic field at hand.

Application form (application is now closed)

Each member university is allocated three places for the course. In case of more applications on the waiting list, please also send it together with the nominations. If other members did not use their quota, it would be possible to add more nominations from the waiting list.

The course participation fee is 1000 CNY, and students will cover their own costs for travel, accommodation, food, insurance and local transport. Visa invitation letter will be issued by the Nordic Centre and we can give recommendations to the students on nearby accommodation. The expenses from an overnight trip to a nearby city (Hangzhou or Suzhou) will be partly covered by the Nordic Centre.

Upon completion of a paper after the course, students can be granted 5 ECTS academic credits (policies at different universities vary, so we recommend checking this with your home university).

Information about previous years’ courses:

During the Covid-19 pandemic, our summer courses were given online through the Zoom platform. Several virtual social activities were offered alongside with the academic sections to give each student a more comprehensive experience.

Before the pandemic, the last one-site summer course was held in 2019. See a video about Business and Innovation in China 2019.

If you have already received admission emails for the course from the Nordic Centre, please fill in this online form for us to send out invitation letters. Thank you!

Want to organize an academic trip to Shanghai for your students, researchers, or other staff members? Nordic Centre regularly puts together course programmes for our member universities, in close collaboration with academic staff from those institutions.  

Our services include:

- Creating programmes in cooperation with the member university

- Booking venues for classes (click for pictures of our venues)

- Booking lecturers from Fudan University and elsewhere

- Arranging company visits or excursions to other places

- Ordering meals or booking tables at restaurants

- Pre-booking (but not final booking) of accommodation

- Invitation letters for short-duration F visas

- And various other services, depending on requests. (If you're in doubt about what we can do for you, just ask).

- If co-organising with at least one other member institution, you can also apply for funding from the NC council for an academic activity, between 2,000 euros and 7,000 euros. Application form here. 

Please contact Programme Manager Veli-Matti Palomäki (veli-matti.palomaki(at)nordiccentre.net) well in advance of any planned trip to discuss tailored course programmes.

Demola Innovation Course

Nordic Centre, together with Fudan University launched a new course in Spring 2019, in collaboration with the Finnish co-creation platform Demola. Demola brings together students and leading brands. With Demola, global and local organizations challenge university students to create a better future.

The course teaches students how to approach strategic foresight activities by working on a real-life case with a company representative from the Nordic region, in teams of company representatives and students from China and abroad. Program is professionally facilitated by Demola co-creation experts.

2022 Spring Nordic Innovation Practice Course calls for application

In co-operation with Demola, Nordic Centre at Fudan University provides its students with a new kind of course, Nordic Innovation Practice (北欧企业创新创意实践) at Fudan's School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. At Demola projects, university students from different countries work together to solve future challenges set by Demola and the students themselves.

Next semester's Nordic Innovation Practice Course at Fudan University will start at 6:30-8:10 pm (UTC+8), Wednesday, Feb 23-May 18, 2022. Register this course on Fudan online system & apply your ideal challenge topics at www.demola.net before March 6, 2022. Demola Global creative director Mr Jere Wessman will teach the first three weeks' introductory courses, content including design thinking, co-creation process, Nordic innovation tools introduction. After students have applied to projects on the website, they will be selected according to application profiles and start working online with 4-5 teammates for the next eight weeks. A final reflection weekly session will be conducted on week 12 to reflect on what students have gained from this project-based learning experience.

Course name: Nordic Innovation Practice

Course code: INNO115003

Language: English

Credits: Two Fudan credits for undergrad students

Time: Every Wednesday 6:30-8:10 pm, W1-13 (except Chinese national holidays)

Evaluation: Group final report (in English) + peer review + facilitator's review

Grade: Pass/Fail

Application page: www.demola.net

The 12-week Demola process includes weekly meetings, clinic sessions and separate teamwork sessions

First trial lesson February 23, 18:30-20:10 Design thinking

Second trial lesson March 2, 18:30-20:10 Co-creation process

Third trial lesson March 9, 18:30-20:10 Nordic innovation tools introduction

Project application deadline: March 6

Project Kick-off: March 16, 18:30-20:10

Project duration: March 16 – May 11

Mid-term report on April 13, Final report submission on May 11

Final reflection session: May 18, 18:30-20:10

Separate Project Team discussions with facilitator: meeting time per the team's agreement

Here are some Fudan alumni's sharing on the project experience:

• My Summer of 2020 with Demola | Tongyang's Demola Experience

• Demola Online｜Yeji’s Online Demola Experience

FQA list: portal.demola.net/help

If you have any inquiries about this course, please contact Demola Program Manager: Nancy LAI at nancy.lai(at)demola.net or Demola WeChat Assistant, WeChat ID: Demolainchina2019

Previous cases from 2019 Fall:

Elevating Smart City Transformation（Kone）https://applications.demola.net/cases/472

Take care （Kone）
https://applications.demola.net/cases/471

Sustainable Forestry（Raute）https://applications.demola.net/cases/445

Precious Presence (Metso)
https://applications.demola.net/cases/448

Shaking up the sales process（Metso）https://applications.demola.net/cases/449

Reasons to join Demola:
While working with real-life cases, you’ll establish important relations with companies, utilizing Demola as a stepping stone for your career. Demola has also been the seed for various startups, as the team owns the IPR for results of the challenge they worked with.

-Unique innovation challenges
-Recruitment opportunities
-Part of your studies
-Ownership for IP
-10 weeks of teamwork with company partners
-Global Demola certificate

Demola alumni stories:

“Taking a part of the Demola project was one of the best experiences I had in my university life. Through Demola, I’ve had a taste of how my future work-life would look like as well as a grasp of both knowledge and skills that will be necessary and valuable for my future careers. Most importantly, creating something out of nothing with other group-mates came to me as a huge pride and encouragement, helping me to believe in myself more than ever.
—Hyeyeon Kim from South Korea, Student of International Politics”

“Attending the Demola project was a great decision. For the first time during my studies I felt like I could apply my knowledge in something meaningful, and I was glad to learn a lot from my group mates coming from different countries and educational backgrounds. The methods and tools used during the course have turned out to be useful also in my further studies.
—Anni Nykänen from Finland, Student of International Politics”

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HOLe1Rmy3E

Blogs:

KONE tackling the challenge of ageing society in China

My Demola Journey: Professional Development and New Contacts
Demola in Japan: A New Gateway to Asia

Read more: www.demola.net

Stay in touch:

WeChat Account: Demola
LinkedIn: Demola https://www.linkedin.com/company/demola
Twitter: DemolaGlobal @Demolanet

You may contact:
Nordic Centre Programme Manager Veli-Matti Palomäki, veli-matti.palomaki(at)nordiccentre.net
or
Demola Shanghai Facilitator Nancy Lai, nancy.lai(at)demola.net