This paper addresses three parallel concerns raised by teaching and studying European Studies at the MA level. First, a recognition exists that transferable skills are crucial to a graduate’s ‘toolkit’. Second, there is a need to reduce the distance between students and practitioners of European integration (the Brussels bubble). Third, the complexity of European policymaking is often easier to understand when students get 'hands on' experience.
We identified interviewing as a fundamental skill that students should develop during our MA programme, in order to address these concerns. Our short module "Study Skills: Brussels" helps students overcome the barriers to engaging with practitioners. The students are given support in setting up interviews with a variety of different actors in the 'Brussels Bubble' before going there for three days. They are free to select interviewees according to a topic of their own choosing, generally related to their MA thesis. Hence, students gain first-hand experience of talking to people who live and work in the 'heart of Europe', leading to a better understanding of the policymaking process. This helps students develop an awareness of the attitudes of the elites they study. This whole process ensures that students graduate with an MA in European Studies having seen that 'Brussels' is not a million miles away from their own experiences. In terms of reducing the distance between the EU institutions and the citizens, this is a small, but useful step.
This course has been running for three years, and we have been collecting data on students' attitudes and experiences, as well as on the organisation and execution of interviews. Students have been required to collect data about how they set up their interviews. Several variables have been coded as a result of the 150+ interviews that the students have organised.
The paper has the following structure:
First, we outline the rationale for this course, embedding it in literature on transferable skills in education, and on linking research to policy in the social sciences and humanities. It will also briefly describe the course structure.
Second, we present the dataset (which will also be anonymised and available for download). This contains data produced by students concerning over seven hundred requests for interview in Brussels over a three year period. We shall explain the categorisation and coding processes here. Our paper will reflect on data concerning accessibility of respondents in EU policymaking circles: who responds to requests for interviews, which individuals in the various institutional hierarchies are willing to talk and under what circumstances, is there a distinction between different EU institutions and others in terms of response rates, etc.
The third section of the paper will reflect on the students’ experiences in the process, highlighting how interviewees reacted to their questions, whether they supported their research in other ways and provided insights that would otherwise have been undiscoverable through other secondary sources. By looking at how this impacts on students, this section therefore also reflects the academic advantages and value the experience may afford.
