Who is accountable and responsible for the internationalisation of German universities? How can awareness of international aspects in study programmes, research and everyday university life in general be promoted at German universities? This is where the HRK EXPERTISE Internationalisation project comes in. Today's launch conference explores avenues for ensuring that all university staff actively assume responsibility for internationalisation. Representatives of 120 universities are meeting in Berlin to exchange views and information on this topic.
At the opening of the conference, HRK President Prof Dr Horst Hippler identified an important goal as “meeting the current political and social challenges and firmly resisting nationalistic tendencies”. He said that the HRK continuously aims to encourage universities to systematically integrate the international dimension in all their areas of activity. “We need university staff who are sensitised, motivated, and qualified to strengthen internationality and multiculturalism.”
The intrinsic motivation of each and every staff member of a university is the key success factor for achieving internationalisation, Dr Sijbolt Noorda, President of the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) and former President of the Association of Universities in the Netherlands, emphasised in his keynote address. He noted that this results in greater participation, increases identification with the university’s internationalisation goals and therefore also endows internationalisation with greater strategic relevance.
As part of today's HRK conference, this afternoon there will be four different forums, in which the participants will have the opportunity to discuss a broad range of new aspects and potentials for the further institutional internationalisation of universities.
With the HRK EXPERTISE Internationalisation project, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the German Rectors’ Conference offers German universities a wide range of demand-oriented advisory and networking tools to support them in their systematic, quality-driven internationalisation.
Further Information: www.hrk.de/expertise
