European Retail Academy established

During the recent EuroShop 2005, the Global Retail Trade Fair, in Dusseldorf, Germany, the European Retail Academy was founded as a European platform for the exchange of information between hands-on retail business and institutional retail research. The founding members of this unique project on the European retail scene are the European University of Applied Sciences in Bruhl (Germany), International Retail Network (EHI) of Cologne (Germany), medialog Verlag of Mannheim (Germany), the IUH at the University of Applied Sciences in Mainz (Germany), ebs European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel (Germany), the Universite Jean Moulin Lyon 3 (France), the Commercial Academy in Bukarest (Rumania), the University of Krakow in Poland, the Enterprise Academy of the Moscow Government (Russia), the South Bohemian University in Ceske Budejovice/Budweis (Czech Republic) and the University of Economics, Prague (Czech Republic). The European Retail Academy will be sponsored by Messe Dusseldorf, the organizer of EuroShop. On the basis of an EHI survey, Prof. Bernd Hallier, president of the EuroShop Advisory Board, sees opportunities for the European Retail Academy to better prepare the new academic generation of retail scientists for the internationalization of retail through an exchange of students and teachers. As Executive Member of the board of trustees, Hallier is responsible for the coordination of the international colleges. Wilhelm Niedergoker, managing director of Messe Dusseldorf, said in a statement: "The strong response of the university libraries to the EuroShop book shows that the universities are willing to enter the dialogue. As far as the trade fair business and our exhibitors are concerned, a practice-oriented international education is high on the list of priorities."