This year, ten EM Strasbourg students took part in the School’s very first Blended Intensive Program (BIP). The highlight of this three-month program was an immersive week in Bilbao, Spain, alongside Spanish and Finnish students. Here is a closer look at this innovative international experience, embedded in the curriculum and supported by the Erasmus+ program.
Rethinking Mobility
This first edition of the BIP brought together students and faculty from three institutions around a shared theme: authentic leadership and sustainability. Co-designed with Mondragon Unibertsitatea in Spain and HAMK University of Applied Sciences in Finland, the program offers an innovative hybrid format combining an online learning phase with a one-week in-person experience abroad.
Financially supported by the Erasmus+ program, the BIP gives students who are unable to spend a full year abroad an accessible pathway to international experience. For Jhoan, a co-op student in the fourth year of the Grande École Program, the BIP was an opportunity he thought was no longer within reach:
"I thought that, with my classes and my job, I wouldn’t have the chance to go on Erasmus. The BIP is a gateway: one week combining cultural discovery with an academic experience abroad."
A Week of Learning and Connections
In Bilbao, each day offered a mix of classes taught by faculty from the three institutions, city visits, intercultural group projects, afterwork events, and an excursion into nature.
This immersion went far beyond the academic setting. Exposed to new ways of thinking and teaching, students broadened their perspective on the professional world. As Jhoan explains: "Being a good leader doesn’t mean thinking about what is good for yourself, but about what is good for society, and for others." The lessons left a lasting impression. "Everything still resonates very clearly—I barely need my notes,” says Sabrina, a fourth-year student in the Grande École Program. The connections made during the program are also set to continue:
"Coming back with new international contacts was one of my expectations from the moment the program was presented, and it was fully met."
An Experience that Continues
The BIP reflects EM Strasbourg’s commitment to offering a wide range of international opportunities that complement traditional year-long or semester-long exchanges. It serves students as a gateway to better understand global challenges, expand their networks, and develop a vision of leadership grounded in today’s realities.
Next year, students will meet again in Finland for the next edition. "I can’t wait to see what Finland has in store for us. I can only recommend signing up'", says Sabrina.
