Are you feeling uncertain or intimidated about teaching in English? Join our upcoming workshop, Teaching with Confidence: English Language Tips for University Teaching Staff. This session will offer practical advice, strategies, and resources to boost your confidence and effectiveness when teaching in English. Whether you're a seasoned instructor or new to teaching, this workshop will provide valuable insights to enhance your communication with (international) students and improve your overall teaching experience. Don’t miss this opportunity to develop your skills and connect with colleagues!
Please note that the number of participants is limited.
Venue: Pockelsstraße 4, PK 4.117
Dr. Kimberly Crow is a German-American social scientist who has been supporting non-native speakers of English in improving their academic writing and presentation skills for nearly 20 years. Her customers include many renown research institutes, universities, and graduate schools. In conjunction with her freelance work, Dr. Kimberly Crow wrote a number of books: “The Art of English Academic Writing”, “The Art of Academic Storytelling”, and “The Art of Captivating Academic Presenting”. For her German audience Dr. Kimberly Crow wrote the book „Englisch in Siebenmeilenstiefeln. Eine Entdeckungsreise” that gives unexpected insights into what makes English English.
A number of global trends challenge us and this planet. The world needs global citizens who are able to cope with and address these changes in the upcoming decades. Higher Education plays a key role in producing global citizens but it will not be enough to just educate a small elite of graduates and academics. We need to develop every human being into a global citizen who understands how inter-twined our lives are, what responsibilities each of us carries on a global scale, and how we depend on decisions in other parts of the world. In order to achieve this, universities need to move beyond producing internationally aware graduates and start using their international assets and potentials for the benefit of the wider community, applying the concept of Internationalisation in Higher Education for Society (IHES). The keynote will present very concrete examples of such possibilities and show options for the TU Braunschweig to help educating the public towards a global mindset that is needed to deal with the changes that lie ahead.
Uwe Brandenburg holds a PhD from the University of Bristol, an MscEcon from the University of Swansea, and an M.A. in Islamic Sciences from the WWU Münster.
He is Managing Director of the Global Impact Institute, held an Assoc.Prof. at the University Rovira I Virgili (2017-2021), and is a guest lecturer at the ESCP Berlin. Prior to that he was Managing Partner of CHE Consult as well as Director International at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
He has published widely on internationalization and led three major impact studies: the Erasmus Impact Study (EIS, 2014), the follow-up EIS Regional Analysis (EIS RA, 2016), and the European Voluntary Service Impact Study (2017). He presents on international conferences and teaches at different universities.
His work focuses on impact and Internationalisation in Higher Education for Society (IHES) and the influence of tech on internationalisation. He also gave a TEDx talk in March 2019 and is a fervent believer in change.
Please note that this event will be held in German.
Die Internationalisierung der Lehre kann als Change Prozess für alle daran Beteiligten verstanden werden – sowohl für Lehrende, Fakultäten, Mitarbeitende in der Verwaltung als auch Studierende.
In diesem kompakten Workshop werden Strategien für die Gestaltung eines solchen Prozesses und zur Kommunikation von Veränderungsprozessen vorgestellt und diskutiert. Die Teilnehmenden lernen Faktoren für erfolgreiche Veränderungprozesse sowie die die relevanten Modelle des Changemanagements kennen. Sie bekommen Impulse, wie Menschen für anstehende Veränderungen gewonnen werden können und (falls nötig) wie mit entstehendem Widerstand oder Konflikten umgegangen werden kann. Hierzu fließen Perspektiven des Changemanagements, der strategischen Kommunikation sowie der Organisations- und Personalentwicklung ein.
Der Workshop richtet sich an Mitarbeiter*innen aller Statusgruppen aus Lehre und Verwaltung, die die Internationalisierung der Hochschullehre aktiv mitgestalten (etwa durch die Einführung international ausgerichteter Lehr- und Studienangebote)
Bitte beachten Sie, dass die Teilnehmerzahl begrenzt ist.
Veranstaltungsort: PK 4.117 (Altgebäude, 1. OG)
Dr. Bettina Duval begleitet und berät als Hochschulberaterin und Wissenschaftscoach Hochschulen, deren Leitungen und Führungskräfte sowie Fachverantwortliche in Veränderungsprozessen. Sie hat langjährige Führungserfahrung als Leiterin der akademischen Personalentwicklung der Universität Konstanz und bringt als Psychologin und Kommunikationswissenschaftlerin bringt immer auch den «Faktor Mensch» mit ein.
Alexandra Hassler begleitet und berät als Hochschulberaterin und Wissenschaftscoach Hochschulen in Veränderungsprozessen. In ihrer Tätigkeit als stv. Geschäftsführerin des Wissenschaftsverbundes Vierländerregion begleitet und berät sie Projekte und Initiativen grenzüberschreitender Hochschulentwicklung und verbindet als Sozial- und Kulturwissenschaftlerin die Perspektiven der Personal- und Organisationsentwicklung.
Internationalising study programmes has become indispensable for higher education institutions worldwide. However, this intricate process involves multiple dimensions, stakeholders, levels, and domains, and requires individual and organisational changes that often lead to tensions. Given the significance of internationalisation for teaching, learning, and society, understanding these tensions within increasingly diverse higher education institutions is essential. This keynote will address how organisational change theory can be used to improve the internationalisation of teaching and learning. Drawing on extensive PhD research and 30 years of experience in higher education, findings from four study programs across different disciplines will be presented, along with the implications for strategy and policy development, engaging staff and students, and providing adequate support.
Venue: Pockelsstraße 4, Architekturpavillon
Franka van den Hende has recently completed her PhD research on Curriculum Internationalisation: A Dynamic Organizational Change Process https://ap.lc/KoUDU. She has worked on internationalisation, diversity, and inclusion in higher education for 32 years, in academic and professional roles in various contexts, as a lecturer, researcher, policy advisor, and project manager. Franka currently works in the Central Department of Strategy and Education at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.
Online Course: Teaching and Learning for Global Competence
Perhaps you‘ve been in a classroom situation where you‘ve wondered how to accommodate international students with very different levels of knowledge, learning experiences, expectations and goals? Maybe you‘re contemplating including global perspectives in your course or transitioning to English as the language of instruction, but you‘re unsure of where to begin?
This course seeks to empower educators like you to navigate the complexities of diverse classrooms and adapt your teaching strategies accordingly.
Target audience: University teaching staff from all academic disciplines
Format: Blended Learning (Stud.IP), featuring face-to-face group meetings for interdisciplinary reflection
Option for self-study: The whole course or individual modules accessible even without a certificate of attendance
If you choose to take the blended learning version of the course, you can already save the dates for the three face-to-face sessions:
October 8, 2024, 9:00 - 12:00
December 12, 2024, 10:00 - 13:00
January 23, 2025, 10:00 - 13:00
Embark on a journey to enhance your international teaching!
Join us this October!
The deadline to register for the blended learning format is September 25, 2024. If you would like to join but have missed the deadline, please contact us via email.
The self-study option remains open for registration at any time.
The goal is set: By 2025, 30 ECTS of English-taught courses per semester are to be integrated into every degree programme at TU Braunschweig.
Integrating English-taught courses not only enhances the university's attractiveness for incoming students and secures our international partnerships but also provides all our students with optimal preparation for the global job and research market. However, the ways in which English-taught courses can be effectively integrated into a degree programme vary from subject to subject: English-language module clusters, English tracks, international (digital) teaching partnerships, elective or compulsory courses?
In the document FAQ: 30 ECTS of English-language Teaching, you will find a collection of key questions regarding the transition to English-taught courses at TU Braunschweig.
Another focus of the TU Braunschweig is the internationalisation of teaching in the sense of internationalisation at home.
We advise and support you in the internationalisation of your teaching. We work with formats tailored to your needs, such as consultations, coordinated process support or content-related workshops.
Our services cover the following areas
Support in the strategic development of the internationalisation of teaching within your faculty or department
Support in the didactic planning and implementation of existing and new courses, modules, and degree programmes
Development and delivery of English-taught courses
Support in finding and collaborating with international partners
Objective: By 30 September 2025, 30 ECTS of English-language courses should be meaningfully integrated into one semester of each degree programme.
This is a collection of key questions raised during the workshop “30 ECTS English-Language Teaching”. All information is subject to change. This collection of questions is for guidance only and does not replace advice given by the responsible departments at TU Braunschweig. If you have any legal questions, please contact Department 11 (Legal Department).
The aim of this measure is to offer exchange students (Erasmus, ISEP and/or bilateral exchange programmes) a meaningful range of courses during their exchange semester and thus maintain partnerships with other universities, as well as enable TU Braunschweig students to also study at foreign universities. Additionally, an English-language course/programme serves to develop the skills of German-speaking students. Intercultural, social, and foreign language skills are strengthened and qualifications for the international labour and research market are supported.
It is crucial that the English-language courses can be taken together and to ensure that the credits of the courses taken at TU Braunschweig are transferable to the exchange students’ home universities. How these goals can be realised differs from faculty to faculty and from institute to institute. Possible options include:
a (visible) module package within a degree programme, consisting of both compulsory and elective modules that can be taken together in a single semester
a thematically coherent module package, made up of available courses from different departments that can be studied within one semester
an English semester (e.g. in the 5th undergraduate semester) (--> special case, see point 9), which can be combined with the implementation of the mobility window
an English track throughout an entire degree programme (--> see point 6)
pooled English-language courses that offer 30 ECTS in a compulsory elective area divided between degree programmes. (in the summer and winter term, for advanced undergraduate or master's students)
It is preferable to consistently offer English-language courses and to specify the language of instruction at least one year in advance, as international exchange students will already have drawn up their Learning Agreement at this point and are otherwise unlikely to consider the course.
Many partner universities have also asked that the same courses are consistently offered in English, whenever possible, to make planning easier. Even for degree-seeking students who study in German, planning is easier if the teaching language is known at an early stage. However, if the course is specified in the module handbook as being taught in both English and German, the language of instruction can also be determined at short notice, depending on the student group. From a didactic perspective, however, it is not advisable to determine the language of instruction by voting in the first session of the course.
Faculties are required to justify the use of English by means of a general addition to the BPO. A suggested wording for this addition can be found in the TU Braunschweig handout on English-language teaching:
“Courses and examinations are primarily held in German, unless the course, including the examination language and examination modalities, is labelled as an English-language course in the course catalogue and module handbook, and has an English description. Courses and examinations may be held in English, particularly if a significant part of a course’s key literature is in English or if the qualification objectives of the degree programme (e.g. the qualification of students for the international labour market and for international academic activities) require students to gain in-depth knowledge of academic English. Students in English-language courses have the option of submitting an informal application for a German-language examination to the Examination Board by a deadline set by the Examination Board." (Source: English-language teaching. Guidelines for the organisation of English-language courses at TU Braunschweig, 2019).
When scheduling the conversion process, please also consider the review of the BPO by department 11 as well as the committee process. The module handbook should also contain a subject-specific justification for the use of English (e.g. further academic depth through international literature).
Compulsory courses can also be offered in English if a German-language alternative is available; either in the same semester or in the academic year. It must be ensured that students who normally study in German do not suffer any disadvantages, such as an extension of the duration of their studies due to a lack of German-language teaching.
English tracks enable students to study in English throughout a German-language degree programme. They are therefore an interesting option for both international degree-seeking students and exchange students. This option allows students to study a course without prior knowledge of German. Instead, they need to demonstrate a certain level of English language skills. Thus, the admission regulations must be adapted in addition to the BPO. Please contact Department 11, Department 16 and the International Teaching Lab in good time if you are considering this option.
A new accreditation is not required, as the English-language track is a variant within an accredited degree programme. However, the accreditation council considers this change to be a "significant change", which is why the English-language track must be reported to the accreditation council. The report to the accreditation council should be made via Department 16.
It is possible to offer a course bilingually; for example, by using digital support materials such as teaching videos or screencasts, as well as additional slides and learning materials. Please bear in mind that a purely digital English-language course is not very attractive for international students. Especially in bilingual groups, careful didactic planning is essential for both the learning success of all students and group dynamics.
Examinations for electives can legally be held in English if this option is specified in the examination regulations and has been communicated accordingly in the module handbook, as well as in lectures and seminars. For compulsory modules, students in German-language degree programmes must continue to have the opportunity to take their examinations in German. Examinations may be taken in English if an equivalent German-language course is offered. It is generally recommended that the teaching and examination languages are identical. In the case of bilingual courses, students must decide on a teaching language in good time before the examination. It should also be noted that the examination must be equivalent in both languages.
This is a special case in which the admission regulations may have to be adjusted. If you are interested, please contact Department 11, Department 16 and the International Teaching Lab in good time so that this project can be tested as a pilot at TU Braunschweig. A notification to the accreditation council is also necessary.
In terms of competence orientation, a didactically meaningful conversion to English-language teaching is central. The following questions must therefore be considered: What added value is there in offering a specific course in English? Do content and language correspond? What competences should students acquire? How can the course be designed didactically and linguistically in such a way that students of different language levels can successfully participate in the course? Additional support materials, such as glossaries, and the teaching and learning methodology may also need to be adapted.
Strategic and didactic counselling, workshops in the field of international teaching, translation service for teaching materials: International Teaching Lab of the Project House
Translation of Teaching Materials from German to English
Creating and translating teaching materials represents a significant additional effort when transitioning to English-taught courses. Do you need support translating your teaching materials into English? Or would you like to have your translated materials proofread? Our student assistants are fluent in English at a native level and can assist you with translating your teaching materials, creating German-English glossaries, or even recording English-language screencasts. We would be happy to discuss how we can support you with the translation of your materials in a personal consultation.
