CSB Pilot Course implementation by FEBT, University of Split. A positive overview by Prof. Miosevic

The Faculty of Economic, Business and Tourism has successfully finalized the Cultural Studies in Business (CSB) Pilot Course. Overall, 20 students among which 10 were from Croatia and 10 were foreign exchange students (Erasmus), enrolled in study programs Business, Economics and Tourism, could receive new and innovative lessons in English language by a team of 5 high level lecturers.

The course covered a wide array of perspectives where cultural studies interact with business and economics. It is cross-cultural in nature and its learning outcomes equip students with social capital to manage their way in cross-cultural environments. In this regard, the course puts emphasis on the concepts of alternative economics, informal and formal institutions, socio-cultural identities and sociological aspects of consumption.

In addition to this, the course also covered the cultural studies perspective on ethics, social responsibility and sustainable business models. According to student feedback surveys, both Croatian and international students were highly satisfied with the course in general, its learning outcomes and the interactions they experienced in the course. Besides earning their grades through midterm and final exams, the students were required to write and submit a term paper on one of the chosen topics. In doing so, they were required to read state of the art academic and professional articles, opinion papers, collect and analyze both secondary and primary data and demonstrate critical thinking skills.

The CSB provided much value-added to both students and teachers. The students liked the CSB course very much, especially the interactive scheme of the course where each week they attended lectures and interactive exercise sessions. In these sessions, students discussed the most recent business and economics topics from the perspective of cultural studies. For instance, one of such exercise sessions dealt with the over-tourism resulting from the AirBnB sharing economy model and how to introduce smart regulation and how to avoid it.

FEBT is an internationally accredited institution holding prestigious EPAS accreditation for its undergraduate and graduate study programs in Business. One of the key principles of excellent study programs according to EPAS is to develop and deliver study programs that focus not only on functional business skills but also on developing students’ internationalization, cross-cultural and social responsibility skills. These horizontal skills have been identified by FEBT as important pillars of its strategic plan and institutional mission. Hence, we recognized the benefits of including a CSB course in our study program.

The future of the course is also planned, as it will be offered to both domestic and exchange students in the academic year 2020/2021. However, the slight changes in the curriculum will occur since the new topics such as cultural finance and cultural economics will be introduced.

Article written by

Dario Miočević, Vice Dean, Research & International Cooperation - Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism - University of Split (Croatia). Team Leader for the university on behalf of CSB Erasmus project.