According to the European Agenda 2020 only one third of the students between 25 and 31years graduate at European universities while in the USA 40% and in Japan even 50% of the students succeed. The lower rate in Europe is caused not only by difficult admission exams or missing access to universities but by failure in completing the studies. For many students writing a Bachelor or Master thesis turns out to be a major hurdle. This is caused by many reasons as students have to cope with certain requirements during their studies (part time studies, studies aboroad) which demand a more flexible and independent way of studies.The objective of the two years’ EU funded project within the Erasmus+/Strategic Partnerships was to develop an online course for Business Studies which provides all necessary skills and tools for writing a final thesis to overcome these obstacles. The approach was a practical one, following the College Writing Programs in the US where Academic Writing is seen more as a practical ability than a supernatural gift. The online course with open access will enable mainly regular part time and incoming students to write an academic paper or thesis by providing all necessary tools and skills in a flexible way.To reach this objective the online course includes 6 modules for students and 1 module for teachers in the field of Academic Writing and tutors of students’ work. The 6 modules cover topics like key items of scientific work/use of scientific language, the composition of a paper/quotation rules, ICT-based administration of literature, research methods for Business Studies, the publishing procedure within the scientific community and the proper management of work/motivation/time management. Module 7 is dedicated to teachers and tutors to improve their communication skills by giving feedback in a motivating way and to be advisory without making any harsh judgments. Every module will be composed of text including exercises and videos with teachers who give explanatory advices. The online course was developed in German and English by the UAS Burgenland and translated into the five CEE languages Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Slovenian and Croatian by the partner organisations. The translation work was accompanied by cultural adaptions concerning each country. The work was carried out by a consortium of 8 institutions, each of them having certain tasks within the project management and the delivering of the course. The University of Applied Sciences Burgenland in Austria was the applicant organisation, working together with the UJOP of the Charles University Prague (Institute for Languages and Preparatory Studies), Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, Esterházy Károly College in Eger, University of Maribor and the College of Business and Management in Zapresic. An English translation is also provided. The technical support and the e-learning platform was delivered by the WWEDU (worldwide education), a company located in Wels which is a provider of online MBA studies together with the AIM (Austrian Institute of Management), a subsidiary of the UAS Burgenland. Three modules in German were brought in by the ASAS Company.The results and impact of the project/course enables mainly three groups of students to complete their studies to transfer knowledge from science to economy which otherwise would get lost: part-time Master students who need a flexible time management and a brush up of their Academic Writing after having left the University for a longer period of time; incoming students or students who intend to study abroad for one semester to support them by an online course in their native language when writing their final thesis and students who need additional support during their studies, e. g. when entering the studies without a regular school leaving exam on level A. Furthermore the project establishes a network of experts on the topic of Academic Writing which is essential to enhance the ability for scientific work and to raise the awareness for intellectual property in the internet.The long term benefits will emerge on different levels. Firstly, the number of students who complete their studies, will increase as stated in the objectives of the project; as well as the number of exchange students. Due to this fact, the project contributes to the increase of the mobility rates within the EU. Secondly, students and teachers get acquainted with the didactics of e-learning which is not that widespread as assumed. Influenced by the MOOCs (massive open online courses) the development in Austria and the CEE countries is yet in its beginning. Thirdly, teachers and students will acquire new forms of learning and didactics on to their way to more individual studies. The Academic Writing course will be enlarged after the end of the project to give the students the chance to compose their own one course out of the modules and languages. The course should be accredited at the institutions using it.

Despite of rising new media study programs at higher education institutions (HEIs), there is a gap in education meeting the challenges of digital economy, emerging new creativity based business models and digital literacy in creative media. Exactly this gap was addressed by Clustering Creativity project.In order to cope with the lack of synergy between HEIs, online marketing professionals and students as future creators of new media products, a need to strengthen interaction between academia, business and online marketing professionals was identified by the consortium of 7 partners: 5 universities from Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, Croatia, and the UK joined by online marketing and private training companies.The aim of Clustering Creativity project was to stimulate synergy among universities, internet marketing companies and students in order to empower Cultural and Creative Industries for the creation of jobs in new media market. To reach the aim, the project pursued 4 objectives all of which were successfully met. Obj #1 was aiming to create international new media community integrating students, online media companies and educators. A Creator Hub platform with over 1000 registered users from 32 countries confirms that consortium has managed to grow this international community beyond the borders of the EU. Obj #2 was aiming to strengthen the skills of students which was achieved by developing hands-on innovative learning methodology and engaging learning materials. Students from all the participating countries had an opportunity to propose their ideas for 8 different challenges, created by real operating businesses, and to be evaluated by and negotiated with the decision makers in these companies, taking the practical part of this project as close to real business situations as possible. Obj #3 aimed at developing an internet platform as a tool for interaction of new media community. The platform offers its visitors 3 blocks of topics (fundamentals; strategy; tools and implementation) that include video, slides and additional material about selected topics in digital media and marketing. Obj #4 aimed to create conditions for acquiring labour market related knowledge and skills during the studies. During the training activities linkages and common understanding among digital business professionals and academia have been created by project partners. Short-term joint staff training event, carried out in the frames of Clustering Creativity, has highly contributed to achieving project's objectives through increased competencies of the authors who developed the training module. Better awareness on labour market needs in digital marketing and new ideas on strategies how to involve students, teachers and businesses as well as build the community around / through clustering creativity platform were among other benefits of the short-term joint staff training.The key outputs of Clustering Creativity are a training module and Creator Hub available at www.clusteringcreativity.com and social media. The training module was created by teachers and partners from business and thus integrated offline marketing theories with online marketing realities and specific digital skills. Community of creators developed the Creator Hub (online integrated platform) will be further supported by motivated teachers and students with improved knowledge and skills gained in newly established online marketing module.With a total reach of 104k target group members, Clustering Creativity became a success story in project partner countries and beyond. 15 teachers have worked with 8 campaign briefs from business companies and 240 students who were directly involved in the Clustering Creativity competition. As a result of Clustering Creativity, new opportunities were and will continue being created for students – they will be able to gain new competencies including how to collaborate and participate in business market by fulfilling the orders of small SME's and NGOs and to earn money, as well as to increase employment possibilities by entering business market with higher entrepreneurial and digital competencies.The impact of Clustering Creativity envisaged by the partners is increased application of European qualification framework, enhanced academia and business collaboration and growing competitiveness of higher education in creative industries – one of emerging markets as acknowledged by the European Commission.