A Successful SMU Study Trip to CBS

Foto: SMU

As a result of the collaboration agreement between CBS and SMU, a group of students and Faculty from SMU´s Maritime Economics Concentration (MEC) visited Denmark in May 2014 on a two week “Industry Study Mission” (ISM).

The Danish Recipe for Success
The ISM was arranged by CBS Maritime and designed so as to allow the SMU students to learn about Danish shipping and the broader maritime industry from first-hand assessment and from research-based and theoretical conversation. The aim: to learn about how Denmark has established itself as one of the world´s leading maritime nations.

CBS Maritime Director, Henrik Sornn-Friese points out, that although small in size, it is well known that Denmark is one of the largest global players when it comes to shipping and many of the related industries:

“The fact that we are world leading was reflected in the two weeks program. The visit entailed four full teaching days provided by CBS Maritime and six days of visits to maritime companies, organizations, authorities and educational institutions in Denmark.“

Connecting Business and Academia
Over two weeks the SMU students visited the A. P. Moller-Maersk Group, FORCE Technology, MAN Diesel and Turbo, SEMCO Maritime, Blue Water Shipping, the Port of Esbjerg, the Danish Shipowners’ Association, the Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO), Oil and Gas Denmark, Svendborg International Maritime Academy (SIMAC), and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).

The ISM combined the company visits with a four-day full time academic feature and the academic part of the program covered five topics of relevance to the overall theme of the trip. Thus the students received lectures on the subjects of: “Global shipping in small nations”, “Emerging sectors of the sea”, “Innovation for Green Shipping”, “Maritime clusters in national and global perspectives”, and “Market formation – the interplay between strategy and regulation”.

The lectures took place at CBS, the Maritime Museum in Elsinore, and “Asia House” – the original EAC headquarter in the port of Copenhagen.

Student Opportunities In Light of CBS and SMU Collaboration
The Industry Study Misssion was arranged by CBS Maritime as a part of the long-term collaboration between CBS and SMU, launched in Singapore in January 2014 and described in a previous CBS Maritime news article. The agreement involves program coordination and cohort student exchange between SMU’s MEC and CBS’ new B.Sc. in International Shipping and Trade.

“Events such as the ISM shows, that the collaboration between CBS and SMU in the maritime area is not only stated formally but is indeed literally bringing students and faculty together from the two universities,” says CBS Maritime Director, Associate Professor, Henrik Sornn-Friese.

BSc in International Shipping and Trade, Program Director, Associate Professor, Martin Jes Iversen (CBS), shares his optimistic views on the collaboration between CBS and SMU and the benefit of students on both sides:

“With the future cooperation between SMU and CBS follows many opportunities. From the fall of 2015 we will welcome 25 SMU students to an entire semester at CBS. They will join the HA-Shipping students from CBS and in the following spring semester all students travel to Singapore together. In this way the students learn to learn in different cultural settings and they establish valuable networks for their future life and career.”

For more insights into the maritime Industry Study Mission to Denmark, please visit SMU’s homepage, which features the two articles: Industry Study Mission to Denmark and China – an Eye on the World and Seizing Opportunities and Realising Aspirations