Regional Seminar for Excellence in Teaching (ReSET)

Note: The Regional Seminar for Excellence in Teaching (ReSET) is currently not accepting formal project proposals. Please check back in May 2012 for new program and application guidelines. In the meantime, institutions, individual academics, and groups interested in developing ReSET projects are invited to contact the program staff with statements of interest and for consultation.

The International Higher Education Support Program Regional Seminar for Excellence in Teaching (ReSET) aims to develop and support teaching excellence in the humanities and social sciences at the undergraduate university level. The program promotes a systematic rethinking of the meaning of the undergraduate learning experience in support of building free and open societies, the defense and enlargement of freedom of inquiry and advancement of programs of undergraduate learning offering an educational experience that develops independent and original thinkers.

ReSET projects establish a framework for long-term regional and international collaboration of university academics who share a commitment to advance and enrich undergraduate teaching in a specific academic subject. While the projects address a variety of topics, fields and regional needs, they are united by an approach that focuses on:

• developing reflexivity and innovation in undergraduate teaching;
• critical rethinking of the subject drawing on the most current international scholarship and bringing the original scholarly perspectives into the classroom;
• collaborative structure for peer exchange and learning among the regional and international faculty.

Rooted in the concept of continuous development and self-renewal of university academics, ReSET creates opportunities for qualified and dedicated regional and international faculty to make a substantial contribution to the revision and advancement of teaching and learning and fosters their leadership in the process of educational change in the region.

Participants, Activities, and Academic Subjects

ReSET projects bring together groups of junior university faculty from the region (participants) and international teams of resource faculty; all academics involved in the projects currently teach at undergraduate degree programs in the humanities and social sciences. Resource faculty are recruited for their qualities as “master teachers,” expertise on the subject and involvement in international scholarship. Long-term commitment of the participants and core resource faculty to the projects is essential.

Project activities focus on development and practice of scholarly teaching through critical and creative inquiry into the state of the art of the scholarship and curricula in the chosen subject area. Participants and resource faculty engage in a continuous multi-year program, which includes regular seminar sessions (typically summer seminars of 2-3 weeks in length, and shorter intensive and small group meetings in the interim) and inter-session project activities tailored to the project's teaching and curriculum development agenda and the needs and capacities of the involved colleagues.

ReSET projects are driven primarily by the needs of the participants’ classroom teaching, inspire and enable immediate connection between the work within the project and the teaching practice of the project participants, and provide means of active academic collaboration and peer feedback among the participants and resource faculty. 

Contact Information

Open Society Foundations
HESP Regional Seminar for Excellence in Teaching
Oktober 6. u. 12., Budapest 1051, Hungary
Tel: (36-1) 882-6152, Fax: (36-1) 882-3112
Oleksandr Shtokvych, Senior Program Manager
Email: oshtokvych@osi.hu
Elena Naumkina, Program Coordinator
Email: enaumkina@osi.hu