Preamble
With the aim of enabling active participation in a constantly changing professional, working and personal environment, and in its self-understanding as a modern and cosmopolitan university, BHH regards enabling intercultural learning, teaching, research and working experience for its members as an important part of its identity and educational mission. Furthermore, with its innovative educational model, the university is to become visible and firmly established not only on the German but also on the international higher education market. This is particularly important against the backdrop of our self-commitment to making the siA known as a possible response to the shortage of skilled workers and to actively participating in the global subject-specific and methodological dialogue on solutions to the economic, demographic and environmental challenges of the present and future.
To meet this commitment in practice, four fields of action of an internationalisation strategy were identified in cooperation with the partners, and corresponding objectives were formulated, to be achieved gradually through specific measures over the coming years.
The fields of action presented do not follow a hierarchy and should not be considered in isolation, but rather, in the overall picture, represent the targets of a comprehensive and long-term internationalisation process. In the gradual implementation of the measures, the dynamic situation of the still-developing university must always be taken into account, focusing on intermediate goals and using the available resources in a targeted and efficient manner. The internationalisation strategy is to be reviewed regularly for currency and appropriateness, for the first time at the end of BHH's set-up phase.
Intercultural competence represents a key professional and personal competence with which students, apprentices, lecturers and staff can better address global challenges. A central aspect of acquiring this competence is mobility experiences, which provide insights into other labour markets and ways of life. For this reason, it is BHH's goal to provide all members of the university with the option of international mobility wherever possible, and at the same time to enable international mobility to BHH. The complexity of the siA educational model must be taken into account in particular.
The following measures are planned:
- Establishing a varied mobility offering that fits BHH's trial study structure and offers a high degree of flexibility,
- Building and expanding an international network of suitable institutions for the joint implementation of a reciprocal mobility offering,
- Structured involvement of all learning locations in the planning, implementation and communication of stays abroad,
- Creating transparent structures that ensure the planning, implementation and recognition or certification of every international mobility,
- Exploring and acquiring third-party funding for international mobility.
An important element of BHH's internationalisation strategy is the creation of an international campus, with the aim of
- creating a culture of welcome for incoming students, and
- opening up to all members of the university the possibility of intercultural education, and thereby sharpening awareness of the self-evident nature of cultural diversity.
To this end, target-group-specific and varied offerings are to be established that take account of the global understanding of internationalisation.
The following measures are planned:
- Establishing service measures and support offerings for incomings
- Creating a cosmopolitan campus of encounter through bilingual contact points and information,
- Setting up a student buddy programme,
- Organising an international Staff Week,
- Offering English-language teaching, e.g. as part of an international Summer School or through guest lectureships from abroad,
- Creating language continuing education offerings, e.g. through language courses,
- Targeted intercultural continuing education offerings, e.g. through qualified intercultural training,
- Introduction of an intercultural certificate to recognise intercultural competencies acquired as part of the university's offerings.
BHH, as a university, is an integral part of the economy, science and society, and is characterised, through its implementation of the siA concept, by particularly close cooperation with companies, vocational schools, associations and institutions. As a university of applied sciences, BHH's central tasks alongside teaching are research and transfer. As both the partner companies from practice and the scientific community act internationally, internationalisation of BHH's research is essential in order to meet the current and future requirements of a globally oriented economy, science and society.
The following measures are planned:
- Establishing exchange formats with partner companies and the international scientific community on research topics and projects, to gain impulses and insights for teaching and research through regular input and keep these up to date,
- Enabling the mobility of BHH lecturers with a professorship as well as recruiting outstanding lecturers from abroad to stimulate international research and to promote the internationalisation of academic staff,
- Building and expanding research cooperation with partner institutions and cultivating existing international networks for the purpose of carrying out joint research and development projects,
- Acquisition of third-party funding for international research projects,
- Institutional support for BHH lecturers with a professorship in establishing, coordinating and consolidating international research cooperation and activities.
Establishing appropriate structures and processes is of fundamental importance in order to be able to implement the substantive objectives of the internationalisation strategy in practice.
Internationalisation is to be understood as a university-wide task that touches all areas of BHH; the trial educational model of the siA also requires close cooperation between all three learning locations, to ensure that the university offerings form a meaningful and coordinated complement to company-based and vocational school internationalisation measures.
The initial establishment of structures and processes as well as their continuous review enables an efficient division of labour, increases transparency, dialogue and commitment, and thus represents an instrument for ensuring the quality of the varied internationalisation measures.
The following measures are planned:
- Sustaining the funding of the International Office as a complementary central service facility until the end of BHH's set-up phase in 2025,
- Defining and establishing university-internal processes and structures within the central service facilities, under the leadership of the university management and in cooperation with the professoriate, to be able to implement the internationalisation objectives optimally and efficiently,
- Establishing an International Affairs Working Group, staffed with representatives of the partner companies and vocational schools and of all status groups of the university, which meets regularly under the chairmanship of the President to actively support the university management on internationalisation matters. In addition to permanent working group members, additional participants may be invited as required for specific topics. The establishment of this cross-location body shall ensure that the various activities and initiatives in the field of internationalisation are brought together. In this way, a regular dialogue is fostered and the holistic vision of the study-integrated training programme is also brought into focus in the area of internationalisation.