Board of European Students of Technology

Infobox University
name =
native_name =


established = 1989
type = European Students Organisation
location = Europe
president = Tim Govaert
website = http://www.best.eu.org/

Board of European Students of Technology (BEST) is an
international,
non-governmental,
non-political,
non-profit student organisation. It strives for empowered diversity by developing students of technology, making them more internationally minded by encouraging their mobility and intercultural communication.

It currently (as of March 2008) consists of 79 local groups in 30 countries around Europe with more than 1800 active members.

They have an online job fair with more than 8000 CVs of Engineering students from all over Europe.

In 2005 they organised:
* 78 learning and leisure events
* 17063 applications for these events
* 3 educational symposia
* 2 general meetings

Activities

BEST Courses are the core activity of BEST. These are events about one to two weeks in length, uniting students of technology from all over Europe to study a technological subject. However, while these subjects are of an attractive and innovative nature, mixing various topics in engineering education, education on itself is not the only goal of these events: Equally important are expanding horizons, improving cultural understanding and in general providing European students of technology with the opportunity to experience something unique for little cost.

The quality and openness of BEST Courses are important to distinguish BEST from other international student organisations. Any engineering student at a university that has a BEST Group can apply to BEST Courses, without the need to become a member of BEST: As such, BEST provides a service not only to its members, but to all (engineering) students of associated universities. Furthermore, BEST Courses are complying to a high standard. In a Course, participants will have all food, lodging, travel costs during the course, cultural activities and an exciting academic program for the full duration of the course supplied. Almost every BEST group organises such a course every year.

Participation fees for BEST Courses are low, and often even zero. The maximum participation fee for a two-week BEST Course is 45 euros and even less for students from many Central and Eastern European countries.

Apart from the core activities of BEST, BEST groups are organising further activities like job fairs, parties or engineering competitions.

Structure

Board

The Board is constituted by six members elected once per year at the General Assembly. The Board includes the following staff:
* President
* Treasurer
* Secretary
* Vice-president for external services
* Vice-president for internal support
* Vice-president for Local Group support

International Committees

BEST has six committees that take care of specific tasks, as follows:
* Educational Committee (EduCo): working on relations with institutions regarding education in Europe and supervising the symposia about education
* External Events Committee (EEC): supervising the organisation of external events of BEST, like Summer Courses or Competitions
* Financial Team (finTeam): setting up cooperations with companies and other institutions for BEST
* Information Technology Committee (ITC): in charge of all computer-related aspects, including website
* Marketing Committee (markeTeam): creates and improves marketing of BEST
* Training Group (TiGro): takes care of internal trainings in BEST

BEST groups

A BEST Group is an association of BEST members at the same university. These groups are responsible for promoting and organising the activities of BEST at their university.

BEST is present in 29 countries at the following universities:

Partner organisations

In order to improve its own work and activities, BEST collaborates with two other student organisations:
*bonding-studenteninitiative e.V. (from Germany, since 1997)
*Canadian Federation of Engineering students (from Canada, since 2004)

External links

* [http://www.BEST.eu.org BEST - Board of European Students of Technology]