Protokoll Internationalisation

Konferenz: 30. KaWuM in Darmstadt

Datum: 07.11.2025

Leitung: Isabel (TU Darmstadt)

Protokoll: Caro (TU Darmstadt: maschbau)

Beginn: 15:15 Uhr

Ende: 17:15 Uhr

Anwesende Fachschaften: TU Darmstadt, RWTH Aachen,Universität Stuttgart, Freiberg, UdS, FAU Erlangen, Düsseldorf, KIT

Der AK wird eröffnet.

Zuerst wurde das Projekt EUSMAT der Universität des Saarlands vorgestellt, in dem es um die Einbindung und Vernetzung internationaler Studierenden geht. Dann wurde die Situation in den Hochschulen im Hinsicht auf die Einbindung internationaler Studierenden in die Fachschaftsarbeit vorgestellt. Dies ergab, dass die meisten Fachschaften keine Anbindung zu internationalen Studierenden haben. In einer Gruppenarbeit wurden mögliche Gründe gesammelt und erläutert. Auch wurden Ideen entwickelt um internationale Studierende besser erreichen und einbinden zu können. Im Anschluss wurden die Ergebnisse zusammengetragen und Schritte für eine bessere Einbindung und zum Erreichen der internationalen Studierenden entwickelt.

Es wurden Entwurfe für einen Flyer und eine Umfrage erarbeitet. Die Texte dazu sind in der KaWuM Cloud im Ordner Internationalisierung der 29. KaWuM zu finden.

Es wurde der Stand zu Übersetungshilfen und Richtlinien an den teilnehmenden Hochschulen aufgenommen. Konkrete Vorschläge zur Gestaltung von Übersetzungsrichtlinien wurden erfasst.

1. Explaining what the Fachschaft is to international students→ Flyer
2. Questionnaire to ask international students what they know about and what they need from the Fachschaft
3. Concepts for rules for translations into english

Welche Hochschulen haben welche Ideen aus der letzten KaWuM umgesetzt? Mit welchem Ergebniss? TU Darmstadt: Umfrage umgesetzt, sieben Teilnehmende. Ergebnisse wiesen hauptsächlich auf wünsche für mehr Spassveranstaltungen für Studis. Main Problems faced in Studies were Problems outside of Fachschaft Control (Housing, Finances ect.)

Stuttgart: Questionnaire in beginning of 2024: whats up? for masters students, questions about the learning materials and exams, expectations for the masters, non-academic activities, general challenges and problems/feelings Answers were compiled→ different events to give important information to the international students Problems were often, that the event language was in german, or that it would only be in english if international students took part → big improvements made simply by changing language eg. The event will be bilingual Instagram, whatsapp community and emails are used to reach the students

Stuttgart: Outgoing Internationalisation: starting to improve sending germans abroad, search for opportunities by talking to international students TuDa and Stuttgart: personal connections make outgoing international exchange easier, currently lacking those connections a bit

Aachen: questionnaire abou problems with teaching aspects, answers were inconclusive, international students had similar problems as german students, improvement in collecting international exams, examination regulations are in english already but only german is legally binding, 5/11 student council members were international students in the last year, the coming student council will be 7/11, seminar for incoming students, nomination for university wide diversity award but only got second

to have a legally binding translation, a lawyer has to approve the translation

UdS: Master is still german speaking, student council is invited to speak at eusmat and french program

Freiberg: 50% international rate, connecting to international students is difficult, student council events are almost never announced on the university website, official introduction organizers forget student council in planning despite being reminded/asked, flyers for events are always bilingual

An idea could be a seperate orientation week for the masters students preparing an introduction event the second week of the semester with finished flyers to have them ready when informed about the university organized events

erlangen: 80-90% are internationals, separate mandatory orientation week, tutorials about lectures, website, exams, the student council is included in the organization main problem is, that not many show up to events like games night despite advertisement with free food

idea is to include the internationals in all events to exchange cultures and make better connections, make them feel included

Aachen: Seperate introduction events, but other orientation events are all together

Karlsruhe: bachelors orientations week begins earlier than masters, there is a welcoming event. „How to Germany“ for international students to tell them everything they need to know and let the students know exactly what the student council does and that they should contact the council the earliest as possible if there is a problem, biggest problem ist that students dont contact the student council regardless of their background, module handbooks are in english and student council members speak engish aswell, ideas for mecheng and materials get-together since there are a lot of english speaking mechE students, the dekan of mechanical engineering has a personal group meeting with his international students

Düsseldorf: k.A.

Aachen: Student council has problems gaining knowledge from the international students about their problems, and therefore also helping with their struggles

Darmstadt: International Students are often scared of Professors, in other countries there is often a very hierarchical structure leading to students also being intimidated to talk to the student council, they might also think that the student council is not effective in solving problems since they are students

Aachen: There is a dedicated group of international students who welcome incoming internationals, problems at aachen are that international students are sometimes rude to phd candidates if the professors arent there

Stuttgart: Latin student are often experienced with mixtures of cultures, so they are more able to mediate between different cultures

Aachen: Lots of students are from the south of asia or southeast asia, one of our course managers is responsible for 1000 students. This results in worse support, since the negative situations build up and the students end up being seen as a homogenous group. The Student council ends up in between in this discussion since they need to help the international students and also working with the course manager about bettering the course. There is very quickly a false viewpoint that problems are with „international students“ and not just with „students“.

Freiberg: students can sometimes not be of the impression that student councils can make change, since student councils are sometimes viewed as political Stuttgart: Invite the students to the council meetings so they have a better idea of the council, its important to also trust the international students with given information Freiburg: A problem is that there isnt enough support for all parties

Darmstadt: „Fachschaft has a political presence“ can be intimidating, since international students can be scared about e.g. their visa. Language should be chosen carefully. To get closer to the students, a good idea is a small lecture about a topic from a mandatory course.

Freiberg: International students often form groups amongst themselves and go to events together

Stuttgart: since the bachelors is in german, and the masters is in english, the council meetings are held in english

Common ground: we all study the same thing

Stammtisch

TU Darmstadt is planning to organise a MaWi-internal germany study group (our fachbereich supports us). Get-together with people who want to pactice german and some native german speakers

Germans should also be sharing their culture!

language:

• bilingual instead of „can also be held in english“
• Avoid „political“ when talking about fachschaft hochschulpolitik aktivities
• Sprachcafe
• international food event to form connections
• help international students to immerse themselves in german culture

Emails: if there is a badly written email, you could alert the writer in your answer that they should improve their writing while emailing in an academic context. An appropriate

Academic hierarchy:

• Masters event allowing students casual contact with the professors e.g. a poster session with a clear conversational direction
• Think about what could go wrong when planning events, dont make it too casual but also not to formal
• bridge the communication gap between professors and students

Problem with integrating professors with international students: getting the professors to cooperate. This is very different from Uni to Uni. Aachen has a reall hard time getting Profs to turn up to this kind of socialising event, even for Bachelors.

Motivate student council alumnis that are phd students to get their professors to work with universities in the homecountries of international students

An Event (like Science Slam) for international students to present their bachelors thesis to get a feeling for the respective research and to connect could be an idea (professors could be invited too).

A GENERAL WARNING:

• Read the fine print on software liscences. Students from some countires may be forbidden from using US software.

Stuttgart has Material: upload to cloud and post link here later

Idea: Feedback forms at the end of the semester that go to the fachschaft only but Not to the central admin or the professors

3. The questionnaire was done the most, stuttgart had a lot of success with it.

4. & 5. Discussion about unknown cultural divides we need to watch our language, using the word bilingual Hierarchy and fear of professors is a larger problem

WARNING: Read the fine print on software licences

Solutions:

• Science Slam/joint topic and talking points to encourage conversation amongst students
• Talk to international students about their problems, continue the survey
• Feedback Form about mandatory classes that goes to students directly

Idee: Resolution bezüglich des US-Software-Embargos in bezug auf die Diskriminierung von internationalen Studierenden