On December 1-12, 2014, Russian students and teachers from partner universities took part in benchmarking visits to the European partner universities to study the experience in organizing the cooperation between higher education institutions and employers. NVSU was presented by Gennady Malgin, Head of the Department of Power Engineering, Tatiana Storchak, Head of the Department of Ecology, Anton Tsys and Evgeny Struminsky, second-year students from the Faculty of Information Technologies and Mathematics, and Nadezhda Nemchinova, Head of the International Office and Russian Project Coordinator.
On December 1-5, the Russian delegation was welcomed in Jyväskylä, Finland, by the JAMK University of Applied Sciences, the European Project Coordinator. The visit, dedicated to the problems of cooperation between universities and employers, included thematic lectures, workshops and discussions with target employers, representatives of Jyvaskyla Regional Development Company JYKES and of the University of Business. 
The first week of the visit also included a coordination meeting of the project Steering Committee where certain project issues were discussed.
The JAMK University of Applied Sciences has presented a model of the Concept Lab, which is a specialized learning environment enhancing students capabilities to conduct project design in a multidiscipline and multicultural context. In this lab, students engage in innovation work developing concepts of services, products or business models either for their own business idea, or for a local or global company. In addition, the Russian participants have visited Team Academy (Academy for creating business teams) of the JAMK University of Applied Sciences, where all teams operate as independent cooperative companies.
On December 8-12 NVSU students and lecturers visited Artesis Plantijn Hogeschool Antwerpen (Antwerp, Belgium). The colleagues from Belgium had prepared a rich program of events, including a visit to the Charlemagne College (Karelde Grote Hogeschool), where the Russian visitors were able to observe bachelor undergraduate students working on their final projects in International Business. During the visit, the European colleagues also presented the system of higher education in Belgium and the training areas of Artesis Plantijn Hogeschool Antwerpen, paying particular attention to the way student internships and the recording system of internship stages are organized. 
Benchmarking visits are key components of the project, given particular attention by all partner universities. Both Russian and European colleagues emphasize that such visits promote the existing contacts between partner institutions and open new opportunities for future cooperation.
The next benchmarking visits to the European partner universities are planned for March 2015.