International cooperation and internationalisation
Every modern academic university operates in a global system of science and higher education. International recognition is one of our key goals, as it is a way to increase our presence in research teams and grant programmes and thus increase the University's revenue, develop the individual careers of our employees, increase the interest of applicants for studies and modernise education. An internationalised University becomes a more attractive place to work and study. The internationalisation of the University creates the conditions for teaching students to work in a multicultural team, because modern companies work in such teams. Diversity of outlook is the basis of design thinking, and multidisciplinarity and multiple cultures are essential for the dynamic progress of civilisation.
In the past few years, we have done a lot to increase internationalisation. Today, walking around our campuses, it is easy to see representatives of different nationalities. They include staff, postgraduates and students. Nearly half of our scientific articles are co-authored by people from abroad, which already places us in the top six among the twenty universities that participated in the IDUB competition, although we started from last place. We are still aiming for more internationalisation, in line with our growing expectations and opportunities. We will make use of the EURECA-PRO European University and other international networks and bilateral relations to create international, interdisciplinary research groups, conduct research together, apply for funding from international sources and make education more attractive. We will nurture and expand the established relationships and agreements. This will enable us to create a research offer that is competitive with those of large research centres and international companies, and an exceptionally attractive teaching offer.
However, it is necessary to prepare the University to serve more foreigners, including in research and education, administration, culture and recreation, and integration within our Community, to which we are dedicating many activities.
I declare:
- Supporting the acquisition and implementation of research in international teams and the internationalisation of education
- Developing the activities of the Welcome Point to handle the current problems of foreigners, animate cultural activities, present their traditions and organise integration activities
- Updating the contract with the healthcare provider to ensure that foreigners are served in English
- Supporting administrative staff in improving their language skills
- Extensive use of new opportunities offered by Erasmus+, NAWA and other international programmes
- Supporting people interested in doing part of their studies abroad under the Erasmus programme who pass up this opportunity purely for financial reasons
- Opening joint virtual laboratories or research centres with universities from abroad
- Using short-term mobility for blended mobility training
- Organising joint debates with international partners with the participation of eminent scientists
- Offering job shadowing and short-term internships with international networks, including EURECA-PRO, for the development of competences of the administrative staff
- Offering our partners joint activities e.g., meetings of choirs, orchestras, sports competitions
- Introducing tools to boost collaboration with our strategic partners
- Benefiting from the experience of people who have spent an extended period of time abroad
- Ongoing translation of internal legal acts into English
- Encouraging students to get involved in internationalisation activities, e.g., by launching a so-called buddy programme.