St Mary’s hosted students and staff from the Faculty of Education at the University of Trnava, Slovakia, for a seminar to discuss pedagogical development and innovation, context and place in education.

Facilitated by the International Office and organised by Aaron McCauley from Trnava, the students were in Belfast for a short study visit. The Trnava staff also met with John Brolly (Marketing and Communications Manager) and Gerard McCann (Head of International Programmes) from St Mary’s to discuss the options for Erasmus exchanges and future collaborative activities.

The University of Trnava, founded originally in 1635, was based on the Christian tradition and has the mission of bringing the city of Trnava and its surroundings into a European context as a centre of education in the Central European region. In the field of education and training, it adheres to the pedagogical heritage of Comenius’ ideas and at the same time uses and applies the latest scientific knowledge and progressive trends in the field of pedagogy and related disciplines such as psychology, sociology, ethics and others. It also provides non-teaching education in the field of social pedagogy and education.