After running for two years, the Leonardo project “Foreign Students at our Universities from A to Z” was recently brought to a conclusion. Thanks to the cooperation between four European partner universities, the project has produced a manual and a dictionary for International Offices.
After running for two years, the Leonardo project “Foreign Students at our Universities from A to Z” was recently brought to a conclusion. Thanks to the cooperation between four European partner universities, the project has produced a manual and a dictionary for International Offices.
Liechtenstein – Norway – Spain
In April 2012, the University of Liechtenstein launched the project by hosting a workshop on the topic of “The theory and practice of intercultural skills”. The participants discussed topics such as different learning and lifestyles, adapting to local customs and life in an international community. At the workshop, the University of Liechtenstein presented its buddy programme, which was introduced in 2008 to make it easier for international students to integrate into university life.
The teams from the four universities in front of Lublin Castle on 7 May 2013.
At the second workshop, held in October 2012 in Oslo, the four partner universities analysed and compared their admission procedures for visiting students. They discussed how to optimize their processes in order to derive measures for improvement from the talks. The Diakonhjemmet University College in Oslo presented the key features of a security protocol that defines in a contract important descriptions of processes to be followed in cases of emergency.
At the third workshop in Valencia this past March, the team from the Colegio Juan Comenius gave a presentation on ways to make communication with students both easier and better via new media.
A summary of the four-way exchange programme and its outcome
As part of the final workshop in Lublin, all the results of the workshop series were summarized and documented. To this end, the results of a survey regarding student expectations were also presented, together with measures for improving the support offered to students.
The project has produced a manual for International Offices, as well as a dictionary containing relevant expressions in German, English, Spanish, Polish and Norwegian.
From the University of Liechtenstein, besides the team from the International Office, Trudi Ackermann, Mirjana Matic-Schädler and Gabriela Cortés, Sandra Beyer from the Institute for Financial Services, Simone Brandenberg from the Administrative Department for Communication and Jeannette Risch from the Institute of Architecture and Planning also participated in the project.
Trudi Ackermann, Head of the International Office:
“The exchange with our European project partners was very valuable. We have been able to take away a lot of practical input for our work. We have even managed to exceed the objectives set at the beginning.”
European exchange programme
The “Foreign Students at our Universities from A to Z” project was supported by AIBA Liechtenstein and implemented within the scope of the Leonardo da Vinci Programme. This EU programme is intended to foster partnership in vocational education and training, and finances projects to transfer innovative practices and partnerships, as well as projects for the development of processes and networks.