Double interview: Marina Markou (University of Ioannina, Greece) and Cristina Spinedi (USI, Faculty of Informatics)

Enjoy the double interview of Marina Markou and Cristina Spinedi. Marina works at the University of Ioannina, Greece, within the Biological Application and Technologies Department. She decided to take advantage of the opportunity offered by the Lifelong Learning Programme and came to USI to spend a one-week training with the colleagues at the Faculty of Informatics. Cristina Spinedi and the administrative team welcomed Marina during the week of May 5-9, 2014 and involved her in the daily activities of the Faculty.

The program was rich and intense: Marina had the opportunity to visit the campus, understand how USI is organized, and dive in a bit more in the dif- ferent activities of the office such as marketing, quality control, administrative tasks, accounting, IT and student affairs as applications, enrollments and graduation, just to name a few.

But let’s hear from them a bit more about this week and about how this experience has enriched them.

Marina, Cristina, please tell us something about yourselves.

Marina: “I was born in Florina, Greece. I have a degree in Physics and a Master’s and a Doctorate degree in Meteorology and Climatology. Since 2002, I have been working with administrative tasks at the University of Ioannina, Greece.”

Cristina: “I graduated from the University of Fribourg with a degree in Economics and Social Sciences in 1996. After one year of employment in a company operating in the maritime sector, I assumed the position of marketing assistant at a computer company active throughout Switzerland, for the next 8 years I served as the marketing manager. I began working at the Faculty of Informatics at USI in 2006 as responsible of the Dean’s office just two years after its foundation. The opportunity to take part in the creation of the structure of the Dean’s office was and is a challenging adventure. I am married and mother of two little girls. In my spare time, I like to volunteer as an instructor of rescue courses at the SSSL (Swiss Lifesaving Society of Lugano).”

Marina, why did you choose USI for this experience?

“I had the opportunity to visit USI Università della Svizzera italiana last year. During this visit, I met Ms. Elisa Larghi, who works in the Dean’s Office at the Faculty of Informatics; she was very helpful in explaining to me the duties of the staff at the office, which matched my duties at Ioannina. Additionally, Lugano is really beautiful, pedestrian friendly, and has a very well organized local and wider area transportation network.”

Marina, what were the three highlights of spending one week in a different team?

“The three highlights for me were experiencing well-organized and simple office practices and procedures, meeting and interacting with new col- leagues while enjoying the cultural differences, and last but not least prac- ticing my English and learning some basic Italian word and phrases.”

Cristina, what were the three highlights of hosting a colleague from a different university?

“If we want to summarize in three key terms the highlights of this exchange experience, I would say: internationality, organization and friendship. 

In addition to being the official language and teaching of the Faculty of Informatics, English is a part of our daily lives, it acts as a glue and a cultural bridge. And it is mainly thanks to it that this experience of exchange could be accomplished and materialized.

What struck me the most in this exchange was to find out how political and cultural aspects influence the organizational structure and decision-making process in the university’s department where Marina works. Despite having the knowledge, but all in all fragmentary, about the cultural differences of our two countries, as we share our internal processes these obvi- ous structural differences clearly emerged. 

We shared 5 days of training together, but also had the opportunity to exchange personal experiences. Certain topics we talked about such as the reciprocal schooling route, the family, the working environment and everyday life in our own country have topped this experience to create a bond of friendship.”

What do you both think is the added value of doing such an experience?

Marina: “For me, it is to compare the different ways of carrying out procedures in the office here in USI and in Ioannina, pinpoint the good elements of each side, and try to combine them in order to achieve a more effective and more simplified way of doing things.”

Cristina: “Speaking of Erasmus it comes immediately evident in our mind about the student exchange programme. The “Lifelong Learning Pro- gramme” is an excellent opportunity offered and available also to administrative staff. Perhaps even more in the professional life, where often the knowledge is somehow “frozen” in static processes, this kind of exchange represents a stimulus for questioning, analyzing and, if necessary, revolutionizing the way we work to offer an even better service.”

Marina, do you feel you will be able to apply what you have learned here, in your daily job?

“During my visit, I have learnt many things about the administrative procedures in USI. In Ioannina, many of these procedures are more complicated and more time-consuming, but they are not easy to change as they need to follow guidelines set by the Greek government (currently there is an effort to reduce bureaucracy in Greece, so we may soon have simpler procedures). However, there are cases where procedures can be made more efficient. Student certificates is an example; printing such certificates can be automated both improving the quality of service as well as enabling me to devote more of my time to more subtle administrative issues.”

Cristina, what did you learn from Marina that you may implement with the team?

“The week program was full of issues treated in a shared manner. Marina could therefore benefit from spending time in the front and back office collaborating with all the members of the Dean’s Office of Informatics team (Elisa Larghi, Diana Corica, Danijela Milicevic and myself). To sum up this experience I have gathered feedback from the team and have detected several suggestions for improvement. Some of them have been identified thanks to this sharing experience: it has also enabled us to convey details about our processes, and identify areas for improvement.”