Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iași (TUIASI) has been actively involved in the development and implementation of the COIL course entitled “Tackle Real Work Life Challenges”, developed through the collaboration of four strategic partners: TUIASI (Romania), MTU (Ireland), URN (France), and XAMK (Finland), during the period August 2025 – January 2026.
COIL stands for Collaborative Online International Learning and aims to bring students together in mixed teams to collaborate in a virtual, international environment to discuss and solve various tasks.
This innovative INGENIUM COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) project provided an interdisciplinary and inclusive space not only for the student participants, who worked in intercultural teams, but also for the academic staff involved, coming from diverse professional backgrounds. Participants included 56 students from four INGENIUM partner universities, together with academic staff from Romania, Finland, Ireland, and France, all collaborating online. The initiative fostered an interdisciplinary and inclusive environment in which students and academics from diverse professional backgrounds worked together in intercultural teams.
The academic guidance team comprised six academic staff members who acted as coaches and represented the aforementioned universities. The team from Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iași consisted of lecturer Marius Telișca (PhD Eng.) and lecturer Ana-Maria Loghin (PhD Eng.), both contributing essential technical and linguistic expertise to the project.
Following a workshop held at the University of Rouen in August 2025, the foundations of the Tackle Real Work Life Challenges collaboration were established. This process involved aligning the expectations of all partners, designing the course structure, and creating a common code of conduct centered on trust, inclusion and multicultural communication.
Cooperation within this project took place at three levels: coach-to-coach, coach-to-student, and student-to-student. Companies also played a significant role in the partnership by providing real-world challenges for students to address on behalf of businesses in different countries. For students, this offered a valuable opportunity to gain international experience through online collaboration, particularly in situations where physical mobility is not possible.
The course included seven online work sessions for students, three of which were organized by TUIASI – the opening, progress review, and closing sessions – as well as in-person meetings for faculty collaboration.
Based on real-world business case studies, the project addressed challenges proposed by four companies from Romania, Finland, and France – Conest, Eagle Rocket, Norelco, and Metatavu. Intercultural student teams worked collaboratively to develop solutions to these challenges. Engaging with authentic business problems provided students with valuable opportunities to develop and strengthen their managerial and problem-solving skills.
TUIASI coordinated several key activities, including:
- Student target group management: defining and selecting participants from various TUIASI faculties to ensure balanced representation;
- Industry engagement: involving the well-known Romanian company CONEST, which contributed a practical dimension to the project and strengthened collaboration between academia and the private sector;
- Facilitating online collaboration: supporting international student teams through the use of the Padlet platform and weekly mentoring sessions, thereby encouraging effective teamwork in a multicultural environment.
Course Impact and Future Perspectives
Within this international partnership, TUIASI facilitated the exchange of knowledge and best practices between its students and their peers from the INGENIUM partner universities. The project provided participants with the opportunity to collaborate in an intercultural environment and to address real-world challenges proposed by companies from the partner countries.
Positive feedback from TUIASI students, together with strengthened academic ties with European partners, demonstrates that internationalization at home represents a viable solution. It offers students who are unable to participate in physical mobility programmes the possibility to gain international experience while laying the foundations for future academic collaborations within the alliance. By participating in the COIL course and addressing real industrial challenges, TUIASI students received certificates recognized by the INGENIUM Alliance (worth 2 ECTS credits). More importantly, they developed managerial and intercultural competencies that will support their preparation for a globalized labor market as future engineers.
Looking ahead, the success of the Tackle Real Work Life Challenges COIL initiative could serve as a scalable model for future COIL activities. This includes: curriculum integration, with strong potential to embed COIL modules into additional degree programmes and make internationalization an integral part of the standard student experience; expanded partnerships, through broadening the TUIASI network of industrial partners and inviting more companies to provide real-world challenges that bridge the gap between academia and the labor market; and the promotion of virtual collaboration, enabling TUIASI to continue providing high-quality international education while reducing its carbon footprint.
