“International academic mobility is continuing to develop positively despite the multiple global crises”

Mr Heublein, what do you think are the three most important findings of the new edition of Wissenschaft weltoffen? And which finding surprised you the most?

That’s not an easy question. There are far more than three really significant findings in the new issue of Wissenschaft weltoffen. At the top of my list is the news that international academic mobility is continuing to develop positively despite the multiple global crises. There has been no interruption in international exchange. This is so important because international mobility not only leads to new scientific findings and the training of young, innovative academics who work across borders, but also to getting to know each other and building understanding and trust. This cannot be valued highly enough when it comes to overcoming today’s crises.

In this context, the following finding is also very important: international students at German universities feel safe, they are satisfied with their studies and recommend studying in Germany to their friends and acquaintances. This applies to around 80 per cent of international students. The figures show that the expectations associated with international exchange are being realised.

One of the reasons for this is that a lot is being done to prepare international students for their studies. Another finding points to this – the importance of the work of preparatory colleges and other study preparation institutions. Ten per cent of international first-year bachelor’s students have attended a preparatory college. In engineering, the figure is as high as 14 per cent. This is undoubtedly important for further improving academic success.

However, I was most surprised by another result: international academics rate the German academic system much more favourably than their German colleagues. This applies above all to aspects such as academic freedom and autonomy, innovative capacity, the relationship between research and teaching, social esteem and fairness in performance. Against the background of other higher education and science systems, Germany obviously performs better than from an internal perspective.

The new edition not only contains six spotlight chapters, but also a new regular chapter on structural aspects of the internationalisation of research and teaching in Germany. Can you explain to our readers exactly what new data and analyses are hidden behind this somewhat brittle-sounding chapter title?

The title may sound brittle, but this new chapter is a very important addition to the previous reporting. The international mobility of both students and researchers will only continue to develop positively on the basis of favourable conditions and structures. These conditions are the subject of the new chapter. The corresponding analyses in Wissenschaft weltoffen 2024 represent a start that will be further expanded in the future. Initially, we were only able to address selected structural aspects; for others, the data situation and reliability still need to be clarified. However, the data we have already analysed shows the support potential for internationalisation in Germany. For example, we analyse how important English-language degree programmes are for international students. In mid-2024, around 2,200 degree programmes with English as the main language of instruction were offered by German universities, more than twice as many as in 2016. A good half of international students in Germany are enrolled on such a degree programme.

Also, International Offices are an indispensable structural element of university internationalisation. Almost every university has such an organisational unit. For the new chapter of Wissenschaft weltoffen, we determined that around 2,800 employees work in the International Offices throughout Germany. Their diverse tasks include international university cooperation programmes, which often make academic and study-related exchange possible in the first place. German universities now maintain 35,800 such international cooperation programmes. Western European universities, but also increasingly Asian universities, play a special role here. And finally, we must not forget the topic of finance. We first looked at the research funding that German universities have acquired from the EU and other international organisations. In 2021, this amounted to around 850 million euros, a considerable sum, the receipt of which is based on issues of international relevance and cooperative project designs that involve collaboration with partners from other countries.

You have accompanied Wissenschaft weltoffen for almost exactly 20 years now as project manager at the DZHW. When you look back on this time, what do you think were the most important developments in the field of international academic mobility and university internationalisation? And what developments do you think will characterise the next 20 years?

If you compare the state of internationalisation today with twenty years ago, there are two developments in particular that stand out: International mobility has become a matter of course. This does not mean that all students or researchers today undertake study or research-related stays abroad, but rather that all students and academics are now faced with the question of a stay abroad. Nobody thinks this question is superfluous any more. However, internationalisation as an everyday reality is also reflected in the presence of international students and researchers. Today, even the smallest university of applied sciences endeavours to attract students and lecturers from abroad. Twenty years ago it was different, as internationalisation had not yet reached all areas of higher education to the same extent.

On the other hand, international mobility in the higher education sector has also become more diverse. Exchanges are no longer limited to direct encounters, usually in the form of study visits lasting several months or shorter conference participation by researchers. In the meantime, both the periods and the forms of mobility have become more diverse. Internationalised study and research now also take place in virtual spaces, a development that contributes to the consolidation of contacts and collaborations. In addition, the long-established transnational education programmes, for example, are also part of a diversified mobility.

What will happen in the next 20 years? I am convinced that virtual channels for international exchange will continue to gain in importance. This will not replace direct encounters, but rather complement them and integrate transnational study and research even more naturally into everyday life at universities. This will find expression in the increase in internationally co-operative study formats, among other things. Furthermore, the flexibilisation of forms and routes of mobility will enable new groups of stakeholders to participate more strongly in international exchange. Here I see above all the administrative and academic support staff at universities, who are not only becoming more internationalised themselves, but are also gaining more international experience. This is a necessary step for the further internationalisation of universities.

Irrespective of this, I am certain that certain host regions, whose position in global academic mobility does not yet correspond to the number of their students and researchers, will become significantly more important. This will be particularly true of the African, but also the Latin American host regions. This is mainly because these regions are working on scientific issues and solutions that are of the utmost importance to us all.