Internationalisation in an increasingly complex world
No. 53 - 28.06.2019
North American Universities visit the University of Göttingen
As part of the "Germany Today" tour organised by the German Academic Exchange Sercive (DAAD), 22 representatives of US and Canadian universities, research institutions and funding organisations visited the University of Göttingen, including representatives of the so-called Ivy League. The aim of the tour is to give participants an overview of the German higher education and research landscape and to give them the opportunity to find out about current trends first-hand.
This year's tour focused on the internationalisation of German universities, with the University of Göttingen being selected as an example of best practice. Here, the group met with the Vice-President for International Affairs, Professor Hiltraud Casper-Hehne, to learn about the concept and measures of internationalisation at Göttingen University. In addition, the participants took part in workshops on the topics of "internationalisation of curricula” and "internationality of the student body".
"The exchange with North American colleagues has shown how important it is to exchange information about the respective higher education systems in order to identify and further develop successful forms of cooperation," said Casper-Hehne. "In addition to our European partners, scientific collaborations with North America have also been firmly established at the University of Göttingen for years and take place in most scientific fields self-evidently. Because North America is the leading research area in many fields, the expansion of existing contacts is a central concern for scientists and students who would like to take advantage of the opportunity to get to know this highly attractive educational environment during their studies. We are working on creating the best conditions for this exchange.”
The annual "Germany Today" tour by the DAAD enables North American university representatives to exchange ideas with the German higher education landscape and gives German universities the opportunity to identify and develop joint projects.
The University of Göttingen is currently working closely with the Harvard T.H. Chan School, various locations of the University of California, Yale University, the University of Arizona and the renowned British Columbia University in Canada. Göttingen has signed six centralised and seven decentralised cooperation agreements with the USA as well as two centralised and one decentralised student exchange agreement with Canada. Currently, 87 regular students from the USA and Canada as well as 19 exchange students from the USA and Canada are studying at the University of Göttingen. Every year, about 30 students go to North America to study. 36 international academic staff and ten international academics from North America are currently working in Göttingen.
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Hiltraud Casper-Hehne
University of Göttingen
Vice-President for International Affairs
Phone: (0551) 39-21031
E-mail: hiltraud.casper-hehne@zvw.uni-goettingen.de