New internationalisation strategy aims to build resilience

Germany’s federal and state governments have presented a new internationalisation strategy to strengthen the country’s universities and make them more resilient in times of new technological and political developments as well as rising global risks.

The strategy, announced by the Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK – Conference of State Ministers of Cultural Affairs) and supported by the federal government, comprises four fields of activity.

It centres on universities as drivers of international mobility, improving the legal and structural framework of higher education, viewing international cooperation in a global context and benefiting from digital transformation.

Improved study conditions

“Already today, Germany belongs to the world’s most popular places to study, and is in the same league as the USA, the UK and Australia,” noted Jakob von Weizsäcker, KMK presidium member and state minister of finance and science of the Saarland.

“We are seeking to make the study conditions for international students even better and thus bolster our position as competitors for skilled labour and academic excellence,” he said.

Recruiting, integrating and retaining international students and researchers are to be promoted by a more welcoming culture and more study programmes in foreign languages.

Furthermore, better German language tuition, raising the academic success rate and better prospects for international graduates wishing to stay on in Germany are to add to the country’s attractiveness.

Simultaneously, the strategy aims for broad-based improvements in the internationalisation experience among German students and researchers.

The federal and state governments intend to improve regulatory requirements for international students by speeding up visa and residence permit procedures as well as more flexible access and optimised practice in the recognition of qualifications. Providing adequate accommodation is a further area the governments seek to improve.

Federal and state governments intend to promote crisis-proof structures at universities and maintain academic freedom, a context in which they emphasise that further strengthening of the European Higher Education Area is a key aspect.

International cooperation

At the same time, more intensive cooperation with democratically oriented countries and a geographic diversification of partnerships, especially in the Global South, is to be pursued.

In the fourth area the federal and state governments are addressing, the emphasis is on promoting greater dovetailing of internationalisation and digitalisation.

They also want to create data protected infrastructure and support the development of common standards for digital exchange. Furthermore, they emphasise that virtual formats complement physical mobility and widen access to international education.

Implementing the new strategy, which is to cover 2024 to 2034, is up to the federal and state governments. Progress will be recorded via indicator-based reporting.

“With the new strategy, the federal and state governments are emphasising the importance of academic exchange and international scientific cooperation for universities,” said Joybrato Mukherjee, president of the German Academic Exchange Service.

“This realistic and science-oriented strategy sends the right signal to universities and the scientific community in challenging times,” he added.

Minister of Education Bettina Stark-Watzinger said that international academic cooperation is key to addressing global challenges such as the climate crisis, health protection or demographic change.

“That is why we are giving new impulses for the internationalisation of our universities in four central fields of action and are creating optimal conditions with the state governments,” she noted.

National security

The Green Party’s Kai Gehring, who is on the Federal Parliament Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment, notes that the new internationalisation strategy complements Germany’s national security strategy and its strategy on China.

Prompted by the Russia-Ukraine war, the federal government’s national security strategy covers aspects ranging from the protection of supply chains to military issues. The China strategy is aimed at countering attempts at “various ways to change the rules-based international order”, said Gehring.

Gehring maintains that, together with the two other strategies, the new internationalisation strategy “provides a strategic framework for our research and academic relations policy which, given the challenging state the world is in, creates reliability and puts resilience centre stage”.

Michael Gardner can be contacted at michael.gardner@uw-news.com