News from the International Office

In the 1990s, many Costa Rican colleagues visited the FernUniversität, which has left a lasting impression on them: they remember the FernUniversität as a forward-looking, open, and innovative institution and have fond memories of their time in Hagen – so much so that, despite the language barrier, they visit the FernUni websites every so often to find out about new developments!

When two former guests, who had since been appointed Vice-Rectors, became aware of the Hagen Manifesto and resumed communication with us, the FernUniversität finally got down to business.

Micro-Credentials and AI Major Topics Worldwide

With that in mind, on November 23, Vice-President Elsholz and Rahel Hutgens traveled to Costa Rica not only to get to know UNED and the colleagues there but also to actively participate in the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) conference. The ICDE conference takes place every two years. It is a meeting place for open and distance-teaching universities from all over the world to discuss trends and current developments. This time around, AI in teaching was another major topic besides micro-credentials. The FernUni contributed with a presentation on the MCE project.

A Visit to the Sister Institution in Costa Rica

The trip to Costa Rica confirmed the impression that the FernUniversität and UNED have a lot of things in common – not only are their logistics centers almost identical but also their logos! What’s more: UNED – like the FernUni – has many campus locations that are spread across the country, one of which our delegation was also able to visit.

Photo: Rahel Hutgens

Interesting and Productive

The days spent at UNED were as interesting as they were fruitful, which has intensified collaboration between the two institutions and will pave the way for a number of joint projects. A Memorandum of Understanding will shortly institutionalize the connection. As a first step, Rector Rodrigo Arias Camacho signed the Hagen Manifesto – at first only symbolically, later online – and emphasized that UNED fully endorses the FernUni’s vision.

(24.01.2024)

In a subsequent round of talks, the guests gained an impression of the process and added value of a staff week or a language course abroad when colleagues reported on their personal experiences.
The employees of the International Office and a member of the HR development team added to this by explaining the specific opportunities on offer and presented various ways in which employees from the areas of technology and administration can gain international experience, be supported in international matters and receive further training in this area.

Photo: FernUniversität

Interactive second part with many ideas

As part of a World Café, the participants discussed various topics at three tables. The focus was on communication & processes, personal skills development and an ideas workshop on internationalizing the framework conditions. Numerous ideas were collected and formats proposed.

More direct and personal exchange desired

It became clear that more direct and personal exchange between the departments, but also with the international guests, is desired for personal and institutional development at all levels. The participants agreed that English skills and English language skills are the key to the successful internationalization of the FernUniversität. At the end of the event, there was still time to engage in personal discussions over a buffet.

The ideas and suggestions are of particular importance for the work of the International Office and some of them will certainly find their way into the FernUni. So stay tuned!

Photo: FernUniversität

English Conversation Club

Auslandsaufenthalte für Beschäftigte

Übersetzungs- und Lektoratsservice

(02.11.2023)

Even though the OUC is a lot smaller than the FernUniversität, the two state distance universities have a lot in common, can learn from each other and grow together. There is already cooperation between the two universities at various levels; they are both part of the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU) network, of which Rector Ada Pellert is currently Vice-President.

Memorandum of Understanding

The Memorandum of Understanding has now institutionalized the cooperation, which will facilitate future projects. For example, the option of a double degree is to be explored, research projects initiated and mobility opportunities for technical and administrative staff facilitated. "We are heavily involved in the EADTU, in which the Open University of Cyprus is also active. We are all the more pleased about the entire concrete cooperation project in the field of educational leadership, which allows us to combine international approaches and national necessities in the best possible way," said Pellert after signing the memorandum.

(01.10.2023)

In this one-week summer school, international experts shed light on the topic from various disciplines and perspectives. Through direct exchange with each other, the participating students learned about different regional conditions and approaches and even practiced telling their own climate adaptation stories. The Summer School offered them the opportunity to work together collaboratively in a digital and international setting and to use creative tools to communicate climate change.

Input from psychology: lecture by Professor Robert Gaschler

Expert input also came from the FernUniversität. Prof. Gaschler shed light on the topic from the perspective of his research field of psychology, learning, motivation and emotion and explored the question of how to bring about a positive outlook for the future and promote changes in people's behavior in a lecture.

The participants study both at the FernUniversität and at partner universities such as the University of Namibia or Jyväskylä University. For them, the summer school was a complete success. One participant found that "the summer school was well organized and inclusive, with interactive sessions that encouraged everyone to contribute." Co-moderator Dr. Lisa Pettibone from the Department of Policy Analysis and Environmental Politics and the Interdisciplinary Distance Learning Program in Environmental Sciences (infernum) is also enthusiastic about the international cooperation and the results: "It was totally encouraging to see the quality of the results after a few days of working together. Together with the participants, I experienced live what they are capable of within a very short time. This is important, as the climate crisis is not waiting for us!"

Photo: FernUniversität

For this reason, there will also be opportunities in the future to gain international experience as part of interdisciplinary summer schools. Plans are already being made as to how the format will be continued.

The experts at the Summer School:

• Georgia Atkin
  Lecturer at the Universidad Estatal a Distancia (UNED), Costa Rica​​​​
• Prof. Alessandra Jerolleman
  Climate Justice Lead with the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Climate Adaptation Science Center, USA
• Prof. Dr. Robert Gaschler
  FernUniversität in Hagen, Faculty of Psychology, Allgemeine Psychologie: Lernen, Motivation, Emotion
• Zuza Nazaruk
  Freelance climate adaptation journalist and member of the Sinking Cities project, Netherlands/Poland
• Kirsten Sander
  Competence Center Climate Impacts and Adaptation (KomPass), Federal Environment Agency (UBA)
• Umar Sheraz
  Futurist and researcher at COMSATS University Islamabad, Pakistan
• Prof. Antoni Roig Telo
  University Oberta de Catalunya, Information and Communication Sciences Department, Spanien
• Dr. Martin Werner
  Alfred-Wegener-Institute, Helmholtz-Center for Polar and Marine Research; infernum​​​

Event website

(30.08.2023)

One of the following measures can be applied for as part of the special invitation to tender:

1. Project initiation trips to (potential) project partners (with up to 10.000 €)
2. Return visits by stakeholders from the partner university to the FernUniversität (up to 10.000 €)
3. Funding for a research assistant or student assistant to prepare an application for a project to raise third-party funds (up to 20.000 €)

The detailed tender criteria and further information can be found in the application criteria.

Are you interested? Then please send the completed application, including a brief project description with reference to the tender objectives, by July 31, 2023 to international.

Application form (PDF 80 KB, Deutsch)

Application criteria (PDF 97 KB, Deutsch)

(01.07.2023)

Photo: FernUniversität

A visit to the FernUniversität’s video studio on Tuesday left the visitors very impressed: “We also hope to invest even more in online lectures and e-learning. The technology here is really impressive. In that respect, the studio here in Hagen is an exciting role model,” enthused one of the participants from Riga. Discussions about current opportunities and challenges at the various universities, as well as personal exchanges, make the International Staff Week an enriching experience for all the participants: “It’s a fantastic opportunity: having the chance to spend an entire week with colleagues from different countries. I’ll be taking home so many new ideas and some great contacts,” says a colleague from Turkey.

Photo: FernUniversität

Alongside visitors from the Turkish universities Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi, Gazi Üniversitesi and Adana Alparslan Türkes Bilim ve Teknoloji Üniversitesi, the participants of the International Staff Week work at the Open University of Jyväskylä, Finland; Universitat Oberta de Catalunya in Spain and EKA University of Applied Sciences in Latvia. From Monday to Friday, the participants had many chances to get to know not only the FernUniversität but also the City of Hagen: On Thursday, our guests paid a visit to the logistics center, after which the international guests joined in the celebrations on campus at the FernUni’s summer party.

(21.06.2023)

“We have now reached agreement at the university level, and the road ahead is well prepared. Luckily, we were able to draw on the support and assistance of a number of existing contacts. The MOU makes future cooperation even easier. And we will be on hand to provide the best support we can in initiating and deepening our joint efforts," explains Prof. Uwe Elsholz, Vice-President for Continuing Education, Knowledge Transfer, and International Affairs at the FernUni. He was a key member of the delegation that recently met in Namibia's capital Windhoek, where UNAM is located.

Joint Project Proposals

In addition to meeting with members of the University management team, the Hagen delegation also took time to connect with partners from already existing research projects, including one in the area of social psychology. “Now that we have an official cooperation agreement, we can submit joint project proposals and work on other collaborations. For instance, it will be possible to co-supervise doctoral candidates,” enthused Dr. Rahel Hutgens, Head of the International Office at the FernUni. She is confident that the international cooperation will be of great benefit to both partners.

Possibilities for Students

UNAM has good prerequisites in this respect: it is an on-campus university which also offers many opprtunities for distance learning. From its central base in Windhoek, UNAM works together with twelve regional centers. Although English is the country’s official language, German is still spoken in some parts of Namibia, a remnant of colonial rule.

Photo: FernUniversität

Some students from Namibia have already completed courses at the FernUni. This was made possible by various individual collaborations, for instance in the departments of computer science and history. Now the FernUniversität is hoping to open up to students from Namibia. The delegation found that student interest was even greater than they had previously assumed.

"We spoke to around 150 schoolchildren at a school with a German-style curriculum and were pleasantly surprised how well prepared they were and by the concrete questions they had about studying at the FernUni.” Rahel Hutgens is optimistic that the first students will already be able to enrol in the summer semeter of 2024: via the so-called alternative university access for foreign students. The school in Windhoek is a member of the PASCH-Initiative network – PASCH is a portmanteau of “Schools: Partners of the Future.” The worldwide initiative networks more than 2,000 schools in which German plays a particularly important role. It is supported by the German Federal Foreign Office and the DAAD.

• Internationalization at the FernUniversität | more
• English Language Services | more

(01.02.2023)

“This cooperation with Namibia has great potential for the FernUniversität,” says Dr. Rahel Hutgens. After taking over as head of the IO in November 2021, she encountered the topic of Namibia several times while making her personal introductions at the FernUni. She discovered that concrete projects have already been initiated by several departments, including Computer Science, the History Institute and Psychology, for example, to enable Namibian students to take courses at the FernUni and to implement research projects. The planned partnership could start as early as the winter semester of 2022/23.

In principle, the prerequisites for the cooperation are good. The University of Namibia is organized in a comparable way: “as a face-to-face university with a distance-learning component,” as Hutgens puts it. “UNAM also has a main site, in the capital Windhoek, and twelve regional centers spread across the country.” Namibia’s official language is English, but one of its other national languages is German – a consequence of the German colonial period, which ended in 1915 following a cruel war against the indigenous population.

Photo: International Office

First Global Collaboration

This would be the FernUniversität’s first global institutional cooperation to complement those at the European level with distance-learning universities in Finland, the Netherlands and Catalonia. “Working together with an African country offers us a real change of perspective,” Hutgens believes. During a visit to Windhoek in the early summer, she was able to a first-hand impression of UNAM when she met her Namibian counterpart on site and held various discussions with department head. Following a virtual exchange between Prof. Dr. Uwe Elsholz, Vice-President for Continuing Education, Knowledge Transfer, and International Affairs, and Prof. Frednard Gideon, Pro-Vice Chancellor of UNAM, all were in agreement: “We are putting together a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ as the FernUniversität to express our firm intention to cooperate with UNAM.”

Cooperation Projects

• Virtual Mobility for UNAM students, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
• Research field “Social History of Namibia,” Department of European History in a Global Context
• Psychology without Borders: Exploring Potential for Cooperation in Distance Education and Research in Psychology, Department of Social Psychology

Administration Workshops

Workshops are also being planned on intercultural issues for administrative staff from the departments and the university administration as well as on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. “This was an issue that dear to many at UNAM,” Hutgens says. In addition, Namibia offered its support to the Erasmus Staff Mobility program. “During Corona, it wasn’t possible to organize exchanges with other countries. Now the program is starting up again,” says Hutgens.

(27.10.2022)