Projects for the Internationalisation of Curricula
The further development of curricula requires time and support structures. We have been able to create these in recent years as part of third-party funded and SQM-funded projects and thus support the conception, piloting and sustainable curricular integration of internationalised formats. The linking of international and intercultural perspectives with digital teaching, for example in a joint classroom or virtual exchange, plays a special role here.
Our current activities build on the experience of completed projects. We support teaching staff in integrating an intercultural and international perspective into teaching content and into learning and examination scenarios, as well as in applying for project funding. As part of these ongoing projects, special support structures are currently available for the further development of existing teaching and learning opportunities and the development of new formats:
ROCKET - Role-Playing Games on Conflict Transformation for Equity in Higher Education through Virtual ExchangeROCKET is an international project that receives co-funding by the Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnerships program from January 2024 until June 2026 and puts an emphasis on aspects around Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. In collaboration, the universities of Goettingen, Groningen and Uppsala seek to develop a sustainable concept for Critical Virtual Exchange which implements Role-Playing Games and Conflict Transformation. These novel modes of online interaction can aid participants to take on new perspectives and gain a deeper understanding of issues relating to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. In addition to students, the initiative offers educational formats aimed at teaching and administrative staff. ROCKET seeks to improve European Higher Education while also connecting to local communities.
You can find further information here.
ENLIGHT is a European University alliance of ten comprehensive, research-intensive universities from ten European countries (Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland), training over 300,000 learners per year and sharing a deep commitment to social responsibility. ENLIGHT aims to conduct an impact-driven and challenge-based transformation of European higher education to empower learners as globally engaged citizens with state-of-the-art knowledge and skills, while synergising our R&I potential with and for our societal partners, to tackle major societal transitions and to promote equitable quality of life and sustainability.
By joining forces, ENLIGHT aims to establish an open integrated space for our learners, teachers and researchers to study, learn and work together, enabling the free movement of students and staff and lifelong access to the best education environment, to connect R&I capacity and maximise impact by systemic sharing of resources.
ENLIGHT aims to transform the way we address global challenges and empower our learners, teachers and researchers to deal with complex sustainability issues. To develop our future-proof education and R&I agenda we focus on six cross-cutting challenge domains which are key determinants of societal well-being and sustainability: Health & Well-being, Digitalisation, Climate Change, Energy and Circular Economy, Equity, and Culture and Creativity.
Completed Projects:
From October 2016 to September 2021, the project "Göttingen Model of Internationalisation of Curricula" was funded by central study quality funds (SQM). A total of 36 teaching development projects have been carried out in different faculties. The project focused on purposefully linking the internationalisation of curricula and digitisation.
Academics were supported by the central project team, the Digital Learning and Teaching unit, and the SUB video team in developing blended learning or online units that could be used flexibly and sustainably, and in testing their initial use in teaching. Before the pandemic, around 70 guest lecturers from various nations (including, for example, Australia, China, India, South Africa, USA, Great Britain, Italy, Slovenia or Sweden) were invited, who were involved in curriculum development and were available for video impulses, for example in the form of short lectures, expert discussions and learning videos. As experts on the respective topic, the guest teachers provided insights into local conditions, explained socio-cultural, economic, political or religious phenomena from their perspective or facilitated comparative approaches to a research question. After post-production, these audiovisual learning materials were supplemented with additional materials, tasks and (self-)assessments as well as interaction possibilities. These units are now - depending on the teaching project - linked to specific, regularly offered elective or compulsory courses or can be used flexibly, in part also across disciplines and faculties, in the contexts of different courses to support teaching and promote "Internationalisation at Home". In total, more than 130 learning units with approximately 300 learning videos have been created.
In the context of the project, eight virtual exchange formats were also developed, piloted and integrated into the curricula of various study programmes. Together with teachers from Belgium, Estonia, Georgia, Italy, Israel, Turkey, Belarus, Russia, Tunisia, Uganda, Brazil, China, interactive learning formats were created that offer students an international experience detached from physical mobility and help to intensify university collaborations.
Within the framework of the DAAD call IVAC (International Virtual Academic Collaboration), the University of Göttingen has been awarded funding for the project "Changing Perspectives - Global Learning: Intercultural Experiences and Interdisciplinary Diversity" from September 2020 to September 2021. "Perspectives Change" built on the experiences gained in the project "Internationalisation of Curricula" and has contributed to strengthening international partnerships. Digital cooperation formats were developed together with academics from partner universities in Italy, Serbia, Hungary, Canada, China and India and integrated into the curriculum. In addition, the IVAC Festival was held in this context and a digital badge was piloted.
Rethinking international cooperation and seeing digitisation as an opportunity has become especially important, because of the current situation with the COVID-19 crisis. The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) intends to support the universities in this process with the programme "International Mobility and Cooperation through Digitalisation" (IMKD). The project "liveSciences³ - Transnational and Digital Linked Life Sciences" is one of six projects nationwide that were selected from a total of more than 70 applications and will receive DAAD IMKD funding totalling around 2.2 million euros for a period of three years starting in April 2020. For the liveSciences³ project, the University of Göttingen, together with its international partner universities in Chile, Costa Rica, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, has designed a comprehensive set of interlinked digital measures in order to simplify the Student International Journey through digital services and to enrich it through digitally supported transnational teaching and learning opportunities..