Group photo of participants at the “German Corner” (Deutsches Eck) in Koblenz ©Hochschule der Deutschen Bundesbank

International week on central banking Monetary policy, regulation and banking supervision in the euro area

09.05.2019 DE

This year, 46 students from China, Belarus, Poland and Ukraine took part in the international week on central banking held at the Bundesbank's University of Applied Sciences in Hachenburg. Over the course of the week, these students acquired in-depth knowledge relating to central banking in the euro area, with a key focus on the Bundesbank’s role within the European System of Central Banks. In a range of lectures and discussion rounds, the students learned not only about different aspects of European monetary policy, but were also introduced to the realm of regulation and supervision. The European integration process provided the framework for all the information that was conveyed. For example, the students were asked to help analyse the European monetary union’s special features and the current challenges faced by European economic policymakers. In this context, the students were split into small groups to debate the advantages and drawbacks of introducing the euro from the point of view of different countries, following which they presented the results to their peers. In addition to tackling the challenge itself, the students were also confronted with linguistic and cultural barriers during this task. Despite or maybe even because of this additional difficulty, the students successfully completed the task and appeared to enjoy themselves a great deal in the process. The academic programme of the international week was rounded off by an expert lecture on financial stability at the Bundesbank’s Central Office in Frankfurt.

The students’ schedule also left time for various cultural activities and trips, where they got to know Hachenburg as well as the cities of Limburg, Koblenz and Cologne. When it was time to return home at the end of the week, the students had not only gained new insights into European integration, they had also built new friendships with other participants and with students from the Bundesbank’s University of Applied Sciences.

A visit by international students is part of a long-standing cooperation between the Bundesbank’s University of Applied Sciences in Hachenburg and its partner institutions PBC School of Finance at the Tsinghua University in Beijing, Warsaw School of Economics, the Ukrainian Academy of Banking in Sumy, the Banking University in Kiev and the Belarusian Polessky State University in Pinsk. What these partner institutions have in common is that their academic and research programmes focus on areas related to central banking (especially monetary policy, financial stability, banking supervision and payments).