In this research I investigate the problem of education quality at the faculties of Social Sciences at four Georgian Public Universities. The findings of research are derived through interviewing of professors and document analysis of Georgian legislation concerning higher education and European-level frameworks supporting the enhancement of education quality. I deal with the problem of quality using the mixture of theories. I divided researched topics in three parts: Ideological, Institutional and personal-level. The majority of theoretical claims were disproved in the local context of Georgia. Education quality and knowledge production are multi-faceted problems at Georgian Public Universities, Faculties of Social Sciences and it mainly is related to the scarce state resources allocated to HEIs in general in Georgia.

From April to June 2016 a new and exclusively virtual teaching format – the international STEM1 Summer School – was provided at the University of Mining and Technology in Freiberg. The paper presents the approach, didactical design, and results of evaluation. The international STEM Summer School was developed and tested within the project „Holistic International STEMs - Learning with case studies and real-life industry experiences“. The aim was to better prepare STEM students for challenges in the current professional world that are characterized by in-ternationalization and digitalization. The project offers some ideas on how to teach the currently re-quired skills and competencies by industry in higher education. The conceptualization of the project was made possible with funding from the Donors\' Association for the Promotion of Humanities and Sciences in Germany2. The exclusively virtual collaboration is due to the different geographical distances and locations of the participating students, which generates specific challenges. On the one hand, technical conditions at the particular places of residence have an impact on virtual collaboration. On the other hand, cultural, lingual, and occupational differences, as well as the differing media literacy, play an important role. In addition, the setting of objectives and provision of incentives is decisive for the shared virtual work. The results of the first round of the international STEM Summer School indicate possible solution strategies based on the three areas of media use, interaction, and task orientation. During the Summer School, students from ten different countries solved real-life job case studies in small interdisciplinary teams. The exchange took place with the help of various e-learning tools like the virtual classroom, wiki, forum and e-portfolio. The participants were mentored by national and international industry partners, STEM professors, and e-tutors. After nine weeks work in intercultural teams they presented their results and learning outcomes during a web conference. The following article focusses on the evaluation results as well as selected insights and challenges.

From April to June 2016 a new and exclusively virtual teaching format – the international STEM1 Summer School – was provided at the University of Mining and Technology in Freiberg. The paper presents the approach, didactical design, and results of evaluation. The international STEM Summer School was developed and tested within the project „Holistic International STEMs - Learning with case studies and real-life industry experiences“. The aim was to better prepare STEM students for challenges in the current professional world that are characterized by in-ternationalization and digitalization. The project offers some ideas on how to teach the currently re-quired skills and competencies by industry in higher education. The conceptualization of the project was made possible with funding from the Donors\' Association for the Promotion of Humanities and Sciences in Germany2. The exclusively virtual collaboration is due to the different geographical distances and locations of the participating students, which generates specific challenges. On the one hand, technical conditions at the particular places of residence have an impact on virtual collaboration. On the other hand, cultural, lingual, and occupational differences, as well as the differing media literacy, play an important role. In addition, the setting of objectives and provision of incentives is decisive for the shared virtual work. The results of the first round of the international STEM Summer School indicate possible solution strategies based on the three areas of media use, interaction, and task orientation. During the Summer School, students from ten different countries solved real-life job case studies in small interdisciplinary teams. The exchange took place with the help of various e-learning tools like the virtual classroom, wiki, forum and e-portfolio. The participants were mentored by national and international industry partners, STEM professors, and e-tutors. After nine weeks work in intercultural teams they presented their results and learning outcomes during a web conference. The following article focusses on the evaluation results as well as selected insights and challenges.