What it is
One continuous studio, not a set of courses. For a full semester, interdisciplinary teams of students from partner universities and CUT work on one real brief, written with the people who use and care for a heritage site. You earn 30 ECTS in three blocks: the 15 ECTS Challenge Studio, the 5 ECTS Venture Block, and 10 ECTS of English-taught CUT modules chosen from the catalogue and taught through the brief.
The semester applies Studio-Based Learning — Learning Path #4 of the EUt+ Pedagogical Framework developed by the CUT Learning Development Network — and is one of the pilots through which that framework is being tested and refined. It is the CUT contribution to TEDS, the Technology Studies, Engineering and Design School of the European University of Technology.
The 2027 edition: Living Heritage Studio
- Spatial research datasets: georeferenced 3D models and GIS layers delivered as open-science assets.
- Curation and museum media: exhibition-grade displays, interactive virtual heritage, typography and wayfinding, digital twins.
- Design and architectural proposals for access, interpretation and reuse.
- Valorisation and policy dossiers: sustainable management strategies, cultural-tourism models, community handover frameworks.
The two modules
Registered CUT courses with published outcomes and assessment, so your home university can recognise them in the Learning Agreement. The full course descriptions are in the download on the right.
EUT_150 · Challenge Studio · 15 ECTS
One continuous studio on one real brief. Interdisciplinary teams of five or six document the site, build its digital assets and develop one workable proposal, with weekly critiques, an on-site field school, on-demand masterclasses, a midterm jury and a public final defence.
- Plan and execute the documentation of a heritage asset with discipline-appropriate methods to a professional standard, within the agreed data, ethics and safety protocol.
- Combine evidence and methods from at least three disciplines into one coherent response to an open-ended brief.
- Design and improve a solution through successive prototypes, using feedback from mentors, peers and stakeholders.
- Evaluate their own and others’ work against published criteria and justify design decisions.
- Organise and manage a team project within time, resource and site constraints while exercising a defined professional role.
- Defend a proposal before a jury of academics, practitioners and the people who use and care for the site, and communicate it to a public audience.
- Analyse and document their own process in a journal and portfolio, mapping artefacts to learning outcomes.
- Prepare and deposit datasets and digital assets as documented, reusable resources under the agreed licences.
| Midterm jury (week 7) — team | 20% |
| Final public jury and handover — team | 40% |
| Individual portfolio, process journal and viva | 40% |
EUT_107 · Venture Block: Valorisation and Heritage Entrepreneurship · 5 ECTS
How a living monument sustains its own future. Value and stakeholder mapping, the European funding landscape for heritage, an operating model and financial plan for the team’s solution, and a three-week valorisation sprint with the EUt+ Entrepreneurship School ending in a pitch to practitioners and site custodians. Framed by EntreComp.
- Analyse the value a heritage site creates for its users, custodians and local economy, and identify who can pay for its continued care.
- Formulate and test a value proposition and operating model for the team’s solution with real stakeholders.
- Compare funding instruments available to heritage sites and select a viable mix.
- Estimate costs, revenues and risks in a simple financial plan and justify its assumptions.
- Compose and deliver a pitch to a panel of practitioners, funders and site custodians.
- Assess the ethical, community and sustainability implications of valorising a living, in-use heritage site.
| Team valorisation case and pitch | 50% |
| Individual venture memo with EntreComp self-assessment | 30% |
| Sprint interim canvas and validation round — team | 20% |
Plus 10 ECTS from the CUT catalogue. Two English-taught modules from any department, chosen with our office and approved by that department's coordinator — the same recognition route as every other exchange student. Grades are on the CUT 0–10 scale; an individual grade is never simply the team mark.
The journey
Week 1
On-site briefing at the monument; interdisciplinary team formation; team charter.
Weeks 3–5
Field school: joint on-site documentation campaign with EUt+ faculty and students.
Week 7
Midterm jury: academic, industry and governmental mentors review every team.
Weeks 8–9
Study missions to an EUt+ partner laboratory and an industry environment.
Weeks 10–12
Valorisation sprint with the EUt+ Entrepreneurship School and partners.
May
Public defence, exhibition and handover to the site’s stakeholders.
Who can take part
| Level | Bachelor’s students in their 3rd or 4th year, and Master’s students |
| Language | English at CEFR B2 or higher (C1 and C2 score higher in acceptance) |
| Institutions | Any institution with an exchange agreement with CUT — EUt+ partners and global partners alike |
| Disciplines | Surveying & geomatics · Computing & data · Media & communication · Tourism & business · Humanities & archaeology · Arts, design & multimedia · Materials & fabrication · Environment & landscape. The brief is written so that every one of these finds authentic work in it. |
How the 15 seats are allocated
Nominations are held until the closing date and then ranked together — the order in which they arrived matters only as a tie-break. The rule, applied in this order:
- One seat per partner: the highest-scoring nominee of every partner university that nominated is seated first.
- Discipline balance: each nomination is assigned to one of the eight lenses from the subject area of the agreement it was made under; no lens takes more than three of the fifteen seats.
- Points: year of study (Master’s 3, 4th year 2, 3rd year 1) plus English level (C2 3, C1 2, B2 1).
- Tie-break: earlier nomination first.
- The next five nominees form a reserve list and replace withdrawals in order until 15 December.
Conditional on evidence. The English level is declared by your university when it nominates you and verified when you upload your certificate after acceptance. A nominee, or the nominating office, may appeal a decision in writing to the Erasmus Office within ten working days; the Studio Board answers within ten working days.
How to join — for partner universities
Nominate in the Partner Portal by 15 Nov 2026
Erasmus and International Offices nominate through our standard nomination portal, under your existing agreement with CUT. The nomination counts towards your agreement places like any other incoming mobility.
Choose “Interdisciplinary Challenge Semester” as the host department
Select Interdisciplinary Challenge Semester in the “Host Department at CUT” field, Spring semester, academic year 2026/2027, mobility type Studies. State the student's year of study and English level — both count in the ranking above.
Pre-approve the Learning Agreement
The two module descriptions in the download give your academic advisors the codes, ECTS, level, outcomes and assessment they need to approve EUT_150 + EUT_107 (20 ECTS) plus 10 ECTS of CUT modules before the student is accepted.
After acceptance — for students
You cannot apply on your own: your home university nominates you. Once accepted, you receive your Letter of Acceptance and a link to activate your Incoming Student Portal. There you upload your documents (passport or ID, transcript, English certificate, a photo), build your Learning Agreement as EUT_150 + EUT_107 + 10 ECTS of CUT modules, and request housing. Your Online Learning Agreement is then signed by you, CUT and your home university through the Erasmus Without Paper network before 18 Jan 2027.
You will not study in an exchange bubble: you form mixed teams with CUT students on the same brief, supported by the CUT EUt+ Student Ambassadors. Transport for field days between Limassol and Nicosia is organised by the programme. The field school and the valorisation sprint also run as Blended Intensive Programmes open to partner students on their own timeline — see Short programmes & BIPs.
The people
Also part of the studio, named as they are confirmed: Course owners from the contributing CUT departments; Studio mentors from heritage practice and from EUt+ partner universities; Jury chair and the venture panel.
The first postcard from an incoming student lands here.
Students who spend a semester in Limassol send one before they fly home.