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Testimonials

Professor Testimonials

Quality of CERIS education owes much to the team of Faculty and guest lecturers. Over the years, CERIS has developed an extensive network from top international civil servants, prominent scholars drawn from leading academic and research institutions, and key international experts. For this reason, CERIS is proud to provide inputs from a first-rate academic team that few universities would be in a position to offer. Every year, classes are run by eighty world experts and leaders.

CERIS-ULB Diplomatic School of Brussels
Open Your Mind to a New World Reflection

“It has been a great pleasure to teach at CERIS on the Executive Masters in International Politics. The course is well designed, well organised, and well supported. The students are excellent. They bring a wide range of knowledge, experience, and perspective to the discussion.”

Professor Richard Caplan
University of Oxford, Linacre College

“CERIS offers teachings of exceptional quality in two ways, the themes taught and the quality of the lecturers. The themes are linked to prevailing international concerns, the most important and those which will have the most impact on the future of nations and peoples. The lecturers represent a panel of renowned and particularly well informed experts. The outcome not only contributes to enriching everyone’s knowledge but also to offering a real intellectual construction so as to enable everyone to move forward effectively.”

 

Professor Guy Olivier Faure
Paris V Descartes, Sorbonne University

“CERIS is an exceptional place of excellence and thought-provoking. Over the years, I have given several lectures at CERIS. I have been highly impressed by the intellectual caliber and diversity of the participants and diplomats there. CERIS is a vibrant and dynamic learning environment which combines diplomatic practice and concepts and ideas. My lectures at CERIS often provoked critical questions and debates from which I have learned a great deal. CERIS is one for the few international diplomatic schools that provides not only professional skills but also intellectual and theoretical knowledge. It is unique and exceptional.”

Professor Fawaz A. Gerges
London School of Economics & Political Science - LSE

Alumni Testimonials

“CERIS offered me an excellent academic and intellectual opportunity to improve myself and also enrich my professional skills. The courses offered me a wide ranging coverage of major international political and economic issues. I believe that diplomats will stand to gain from CERIS executive programs and degrees.”

Assem Hanafi, Ambassador of Egypt to Nigeria, MAIP 2017
Assem Hanafi
Ambassador of Egypt to Nigeria

“CERIS provided the ideal environment to inspire a professional. There was a supportive work ethic, a demanding academic programme and interesting extracurricular activities.I strongly believe it is an excellent choice for anyone seeking to advance their professional or academic career.“

Laurentiu Rebega, Member of the European Parliament
Laurentiu Rebega
Member of the European Parliament

“I followed the lectures on International Politics at the CERIS-ULB Diplomatic School during the academic year 2017-2018. They gave me access to broad information on current political situations worldwide, including their history and their impacts. Sometimes given in a provocative spirit, these lectures were a great opportunity to see different sides and approaches to politics and thus helped me enlarge my horizon. I enjoyed in particular the lectures on Geopolitics and on the Middle East. I would like to thank the Executive Boa”

Sanja Mijic
Sanja Mijic
European Parliament

“The theory and practice mix of the programs offered by CERIS makes it a unique institution of high learning. CERIS offers life long learning skills that makes one versatile and motivated to continue learning by building upon the knowledge acquired while studying at CERIS. I now have enhanced analytical skills that are needed in the multilateral environment where a sound appreciation of the ever changing global political dynamics is a must negotiators courtesy of the CERIS Executive Masters in International Politics.”

Poem Mudyawabikwa
Poem Mudyawabikwa
Diplomat with Zimbabwe Permanent Mission to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva

CERIS program attracted me for two reasons: it covered widespan themes such as international security, arms control, global warming or human rights, and it gave an in-depth perspective on every region in the globe, not focusing exclusively on the West or China. During a whole year I had classes on these subjects given by lecturers from some of the best universities in Europe and the US, bringing different schools of thought to an already open and diversified audience. It is indeed a fascinating International Politics degree, perfectly suited in Brussels, the Capital of Europe.

Antonio-NOBRE-_EU-120_01
António Nobre
Eco Management and Audit Scheme - EMAS Coordinator, European Commission

CERIS is a very remarkable Institution and I have particularly enjoyed the quality, the essence of education, the high profile of teachers and the professionalism of the management team. The insight about global economy and politics to forge knowledge and understanding the 21st century made a big impression to me. I take the opportunity to thank the management team for their impressive and hard work they had accomplished to make CERIS what it is today. I will always recommend CERIS to family, friends and colleagues.”

tharcice
Tharcisse Gatarama
Legal and Strategic Advisor to the Ministry of Justice- EUCAP Sahel Niger

“I studied at CERIS from October 2016 to October 2017. The Master is organised in 6 topic modules and 6 geographic modules which together provide a full overview of international relations theory but also a helicopter view of current global events. Moreover, the guided research and Thesis writing module allows developing valuable expert knowledge in a chosen area of international relations.

Yet, what really distinguishes CERIS from “traditional” university studies lies in its ability to attract not only academics but also, and mainly, practitioners. We had speakers and teachers from international institutions such as NATO and EC, country ambassadors, experienced field analysts, etc. These practitioners were passionate about sharing their experience from the field, which enabled us to learn not only the theory but also to understand what that theory means “in the real world”. I recommend CERIS to anyone who wishes to enrich his work experience with the theoretical side of things or vice-versa!”

Georges Ortmann
Investment Officer at Virunga Development, DRC

“It was my honor to be part of CERIS Executive Master in International Politics programme in the academic year of 2017-2018. I would like to acknowledge the wealth of thoughts and opinions that CERIS Executive Master programme offers. I got more than I expected and more than a single University can offer, as CERIS provides high quality lecturers from a broad spectrum of academic origin and professional background inter alia London School of Economics and Political Science, Sciences Po Paris, UC Louvain. The scholarly part is well balanced with the opportunity to engage with current NATO and EU officials, diplomats and analysts, represented among the lecturers and likewise your own course-mates in the auditorium. The horizon of my knowledge was further broadened by the variety of questions asked by my course-mates during our seminars, each of us presenting a complementary perspective, sometimes opposing views that fostered additional discussion and by our informal networking discussions during coffee breaks. Highly recommend CERIS to those searching for a master’s study programme to be combined even with a demanding full-time work schedule.”

Ilze Milta
Diplomat of the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, currently Policy Officer at the European Commission

“It has been a brilliant idea to follow the CERIS Master in Governance and Development policy. I was impressed each time by the top level of lecturers. There is hardly a public policy field (be it geopolitics, governance, development policy, economy, energy policy, security, environment and climate change, human rights) that was not covered at a high level. What is also important, we had the opportunity to actively participate in the lectures by raising as many questions as we wished.

All this in a most agreeable and human ambiance (in the imposing ULB premises since last year), with efficient organisation of the courses by the competent and friendly members of the CERIS secretariat. I can only recommend this opportunity for Master studies.”

Vasilios Magnis
Administrator at the Agriculture committee's secretariat of the European Parliament

‘Veni Vidi Vici’ – ’ I came, I saw ,I conquered’. CERIS-ULB was a unique and unforgettable experience as I got lot of valuable lessons and insights from my studies in Masters in International Politics, Masters in Development Policy as well as a Teaching Assistant in the same institution . I wouldnt have been able to achieve my goals without passing through the school. It offered me a good atmosphere to learn international development politics, where lecturers provide all the support one is looking for. The uniqueness of the school is that it provides opportunity to work with people from different diverse professional, academic and cultural backgrounds”

Joseph_Sarfo
Joseph Kwame Sarfo-Adu
Office of the President, Republic of Ghana

“I find CERIS’ teaching methods to be very mature and comprehensive. Teachers always suggest to approach the problem from different angles and invite to draw own conclusions rather than push to accept the mainstream vision. The range of topics in the module «International Politics» touched upon the majority of issues and geographical regions.“

Vera Lipkovskaya, Senior Expert, Representative Office of Gazprom in Brussels
Vera Lipkovskaya Senior Expert
Representative Office of Gazprom in Brussels

Testimonials from Scholarship Recipients

Each year, we welcome participants from all over the world, from 5 continents and more than 40 countries. The CERIS-ULB Diplomatic School in Brussels offers scholarships thanks to the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region in Belgium, to help develop expertise to support the development of partner countries. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Ministry of the Brussels-Capital Region in charge of European and International Relations for its unfailing support, thanks to which this initiative has become a reality.

Brussels-Capital Region
A region that opens minds to new perspectives on the world.

“I am grateful to have had the opportunity to attend the Ceris program this year thanks to the scholarship I was granted from the Region de Bruxelles. This scholarship gave me the chance to deepen and broaden my knowledge in International Relations. I truly enjoyed the diversity and depths of participants which allowed for great interaction and sharing of experiences. I came out of it better equipped with tools to operate in a world that is facing paradigmatic changes. I am thankful to have had the unique opportunity to attend classes by brilliant lecturers and I once again would like to thank Ceris for the wonderful experience.”

Mariama Naomi Gaye
PhD Candidate at University of International Business and Economics, Graduate from Shanghai Jiao Tong University

“I am very greatful to the Région de Bruxelles-Capitale and CERIS for the one in a lifetime opportunity to gain so much knowledge and information from some of the finest minds in the world. Through the scholarship I was granted for the CERIS programme, I was able to get different detailed and interesting perspectives on diplomacy, trade, international relations, governance and policy.

 

As an advisor to prominent political figures in the DRC, this program was not only relevant for my work, it helped me tackle many of today’s issues with a different lense, which was very beneficial to me and to my work. I strongly encourage CERIS to continue to provide this unique and elite opportunity to Africans in general and congolese professionels in particular.”

Placide Tshibanda
Advisor to the Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo

” Thanks to the “Brussels-Capital Region”, I had the privilege of attending the Executive MA in Governance & Development Policy program 2020-2021 provided by CERIS. It was a great personal experience, seen the quality courses taught by highly qualified teachers as well as the quality of the debates initiated by the other students. Attending this program gives me a better understanding of ‘how’, ´why’ and ´when’ different governance and development policies are applied on continents and regions; not only from a global point of view but also in detail with concrete examples.

I highly recommend this program to actors and potential actors of the aforementioned subject, governance and development, being from any country or region of the world because it allows you to better understand where (and why) countries/regions are in their stages of development and provide a solid baseline to start with when it comes to performing with regard to the development and governance of a country/region.”

Benjamin Sambu
Senior Delivery and Framework Manager EU Institutions