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Faculty of social and economic sciences CU > Departments > Departments of the Dean's Office > Research Center for Human Rights > ACTIVITIES > Regional Academy on the United Nations

Regional Academy on the United Nations

Except MUN, Faculty is participating also on international project Regional Academy on the United Nations. Unlike MUN, RAUN is not a competition, rather a training program for advanced students. Along with FSES, there are three other universities participating on the project - the University of Economics in Prague, University of Szeged and Diplomatic Academy in Vienna. RAUN focuses on research projects and policy papers dealing with current issues of the UN specialized agencies. The participants work in mixed international groups to follow the real situation. The students are guided by the mentor from the specialized agency and counselor from one of the universities.  The counselor of FSES is our dean, Lucia Mokrá. Unlike MUN, here the students have real opportunity to meet the UN people, visit the UN headquarters in Vienna and if enough interesting, they get also get on the list of interns or future collaborators.  

Season 2015 - written by Clarissa Tabosa

The Regional Academy on the United Nations is an academic training which gathers together students from different countries and backgrounds to learn, discuss, and research on a broad range of issues that are found within the scope of the United Nations. The research topics can vary for instance from outer space affairs, to drugs and crime, women rights, and many others.

In the year 2015-2016 the main theme was “Peace and Security” and the Academy counted with more than 40 students from 12 different countries (but all coming from universities in Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic or Serbia). Throughout the year the students had rounds of lectures and presentations from experts coming from the academia, NGOs, national governments, and UN agencies in three different cities: Prague, Szeged and the final session in Vienna. As each group is assigned to work closely with one of the UN agencies, each group also 

had an opportunity to meet and work in cooperation with experts from the particular agencies in Vienna.

During the final session in Vienna the students take part in the annual conference of the Academic Council of the United Nations System (ACUNS) and have the chance to present and to have feedback on their final research from leading scholars from all around the world. It is indeed a very enriching experience and for many of the participants the research area they chose within the RAUN program defined as well they path in their studies back in their universities.

Besides that, RAUN was a great opportunity to build a network not only among the students, but also with the experts that we had the opportunity to discuss with during the sessions. Furthermore, for those who wished to still engaged with RAUN there was the opportunity to join the Peer+ program in which former RAUN students become peers and assist the following year’s students throughout their research process.