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Advanced Seminars
At IE University, we offer a range of academic activities that enable our students to build up a professional profile even before completing their studies.
Among these activities are the advanced seminars—short, optional courses consisting of six sessions that complement and expand upon our students’ education.
The seminars cover a wide range of topics and are led by specialized professors. With a clear interdisciplinary approach, they are aimed at all IE University students, regardless of degree or year of study.
The table below displays the advanced seminars on offer by area of interest. This does not represent the full spectrum of seminars available, but gives students a taste of the kind of subjects and areas that are explored:
TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION & MARKETING
BLOCKCHAIN AND CRYPTOCURRENCIES
This seminar will introduce blockchain and bitcoin, the new financial system that has the potential to massively shake up the world of business. Its open ledger system and distribution network make it valuable, and while it is still relatively new, as it becomes more sophisticated, Bitcoin has the potential to solve many of the current financial system’s problems.
VIRTUAL REALITY 101
This seminar will give students first-hand experience and knowledge of VR, AR, MR, and other digital realities of the future, as well as the many ways they apply to everyday life.
Students will experience with the latest VR/AR headsets and applications and will understand the capabilities and limitations of VR/AR, as well as the main use cases for human communication, entertainment, health, training and productivity.
NETFLIX, HBO, AND AMAZON: THE DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS
Students who complete this seminar will learn: how this industry operates; what the leading companies had to overcome to rise to the top; and what they had to change to succeed. It will also examine the companies who failed to make it and why, as well as what the future of the industry has in store and how it will affect other businesses.
PERSONAL AND SOCIAL SKILLS
PERSONAL BRANDING IN EARLY CAREER SUCCESS
This seminar will provide students with the key knowledge and tools to develop their personal brand to help secure career management and professional success. It will definitely help our students take ownership of their career, as well as learn how to build an efficient online and offline presence, how to network, how to behave at recruiting events, and make the most of their personal brand!
EXPLORING DIFFERENT CAREER SECTORS & INDUSTRIES
This seminar provides students with the tools and confidence to succeed during the recruitment process. Students will have the opportunity to better understand the big picture of their target companies and will give them useful information to manage their career development.
ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT & FINANCE
FINANCIAL MARKETS, BUBBLES & BUSTS
The purpose of this seminar is to provide an analytical perspective on the financial booms and busts affecting advanced and emerging countries, their causes and their consequences – with special focus on the Global Financial Crisis and its aftermath. Students will gain an understanding of the root causes of financial bubbles and the forces that drive their occurrence.
INVESTMENT, PRIVATE EQUITY AND EMERGING MARKETS
This seminar provides an overall understanding of investment and its role and applications. It also teaches how to differentiate between developed and emerging markets and give a better understanding of private equity and its growing role in the modern economy.
IE TRADING ROOM
This seminar provides an introduction to the trading fundamentals and hedging strategies. It covers different aspects of pricing and risk, managing a wide range of derivative products. The goal is to give the students an insight into the daily work on a Trading Desk. The course includes an interactive exercise using the tools provided in Bloomberg with real trading data of different types of assets.
MONETARY POLICY AND FINANCIAL REGULATION
The objective of the seminar is to analyze the factors
that will determine the changes that may occur in the monetary and banking system in the future. The advantages of digital money issuance by the central banks will also be studied. The students will better understand the problems that banks, supervisors and central banks will face in the future.
GLOBAL AFFAIRS
FOREIGN POLICY IN TIMES OF CRISES
This seminar offers a dynamic perspective on international relations and foreign policy in times of crises. It will have a focus on Europe and its challenges, and will examine case studies from recent decades. It builds on a mix of practice and work in the contexts where foreign policy is applied and at the domestic front.
POLITICAL RISK ANALYSIS FOR A TURBULENT WORLD
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to political risk analysis and prepare them for a successful career in an expanding professional sector for international relations graduates. The course will analyze how the world has evolved over the last decades and the actual meaning of “country” and “political risk.”
HUMANITIES, ART, & CULTURE
HAND SKETCHING FOR EVERYONE
This seminar will teach students how to hand sketch products and small spaces, no matter their level of creativity or experience with drawing. “Of course you can draw, the problem is that you don’t trust yourself. With this quick course, you won’t believe what you are capable of.” The course is an interactive workshop for learning the basics of sketching.
WELLBEING
MINDFULNESS 001
This seminar will provide an introduction to mindfulness and teach students how to start their own rituals so they can draw on the benefits of mindfulness in their own lives.
Students will learn how to bring more mindfulness to their daily lives and will try this out for themselves during the course.
FULFILLING MY POTENTIAL: SELF-IDENTITY AND THE EXPANSION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
The purpose of this seminar is to provide students with a series of simple tools that will help them fulfil their potential by digging deeper into who they truly are. Students will be able to understand the parts of one’s identity and how different paradigm shifts may affect their world.
WHAT ARE THE IEU SEMINARS?
The Advanced Seminars are a unique experience designed to enhance students' knowledge, both in areas that align with their major and in providing them a broader understanding of the pillars of IE University: innovation, humanities, entrepreneurship and sustainability. Professors of prestigious professional backgrounds, experienced practitioners and prominent international figures are hosting six highly interactive sessions that will help to anchor new concepts and content into students' minds. The Advanced Seminars are a great opportunity to improve students' professional profile on a cost-free and voluntary basis.
ENROLLMENT
Students can register for these seminars through the Online Campus.
Students may register for a maximum of two seminars per semester.
Students may cancel their enrollment before the second session if they have reason to do so, informing both the professor and the department overseeing the seminar.
There must a minimum of ten students enrolled for a seminar to proceed. If the number of students does not reach ten, the seminar will be postponed.
A maximum of 20 students may enroll in any given advanced seminar.
When a seminar does not reach the minimum number of participants, the General Application Form will stay open an extra two weeks to give students more time to sign up.
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