Teaching the EU Outside Europe: Simulation Experiences with US and South Korean Students

Over the last decade, the Model EU simulations have developed into an effective learning method to teach students about the evolving European Union (EU) system of governance. The complex role-plays in which students simulate the institutional complexity of the EU, are recognised as an effective tool to actively engage students in understanding EU institutions, their functioning and policy advancements. While most of the existing empirical research focuses on the effectiveness of EU simulation as a teaching tool for European students, this paper aims to contribute to the current debates by exploring the effectiveness of this tool in advancing the knowledge of the EU among non-European students. The paper will compare the experiences from the new MEU in Korea, a simulation of the Council of the European Union co-hosted by the three Jean Monnet EU Centres of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS), Yonsei University and of Korea University, with the Global Model EU Simulation, organised in the U.S., in which mostly American (and some European) students simulate negotiations in four different EU Councils (European Council and 3 Council of the EU configurations). The paper will respond to the research question: Are Model EU simulations an effective tool to teach the EU to a non-European audience? Our expectation is to find that MEUs are an effective tool to teach the EU especially to those non-European students who know the least about the European Union before joining a MEU course and conference. We use surveys and interviews to answer the research question.