TU Dresden's Internationalisation Strategy
Table of contents
Science is international. For this reason, thinking and acting internationally is decisive in the worldwide competition for students and scientists.
Maintaining teaching and research at the highest international level and securing their continued development is considered to be one of our most important tasks. Internationalisation as a long-term goal of our University is therefore an integral element in all strategic documents, above all in the Institutional Strategy “The Synergetic University”, in our development plan and in our mission statement.
Four fields of action in terms of Internationalisation
“We provide our students with an internationally-oriented education, preparing them for their future tasks as mobile, internationally active scientists and academics as well as specialists and executives. It is our goal to equip them with the skills necessary for a globalised world and for the employment market, and to support them as they develop into open-minded members of our society.”
We are promoting student mobility abroad by participating actively in the development of the higher education areas of Europe and the wider world and by dismantling barriers to mobility.
We are extending our internationally-oriented study programmes and those held in English, especially in the subjects which are particularly attractive for international students.
We are improving the academic success of international students with the help of supervision and integration measures. We have made it our goal to occupy a top position in Germany in terms of the successful education of this target group.
2. The internationalisation of research
“We are intensifying our links with international partners in order to promote research collaborations and to achieve top research results. Our junior researchers are already actively involved in this development while working on their doctorates.”
We are collaborating with international scientists and academics worldwide in order to achieve top research results. It is only as an attractive, internationally connected university that we will be able to overcome global scientific and social challenges.
We are furthering the internationalisation of the doctoral phase. It is our aim to integrate junior researchers into collaborations and exchanges with international scientists and academics early on. Top scientific quality in an international environment will ensure our University is an attractive destination for doctoral candidates from all over the world.
“We are creating general conditions in which the internationalisation of teaching and research at our University can unfold in the best way possible, and which serve to equip all university members with the necessary skills to enable them to contribute effectively to shaping this development.”
We are aiming towards having an academic staff that is international in character. Cultural diversity and international experience ensure the critical examination of socially relevant questions. We are committed to an international campus and are creating the support structures appropriate to this end.
We are continuously extending our linguistic and intercultural competences. To make our international guests feel welcome at our University, we are consolidating and expanding our internationally-oriented service culture. We support our employees in their endeavours to put the idea of an international campus into practice in everyday life.
“We want to establish our University as an internationally recognised institution and to increase its visibility to ensure it has worldwide appeal for the ‘best minds’.”
We are intensifying our collaboration with selected partner universities and networks to ensure our active performance in the worldwide scientific community. Together with our partners in the research alliance DRESDEN-concept, we are taking measures to raise the profile of Dresden as a scientific location and to make our University more visible both within Germany and on the international stage. We are making a name for ourselves as an excellent university in the global competition for the brightest minds.
Our Internationalisation Strategy and the path to its implementation
On the basis of the above mentioned strategic goals, the Rectorate passed the current Internationalisation Strategy.
Over the coming years, and with the aid of a catalogue of measures developed simultaneously, we will work at both central and decentralised levels to continue to make these goals a reality. This process is supported by the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK) Re-Audit “Internationalisation of Universities”.
At the five TUD Schools, decentralised strategy papers have been developed which come under the above-mentioned heading, “TU Dresden – Connected to the World”, and which undertake setting relevant priorities for each School.
Decentralised strategy papers of the following schools are already available :
- School of Science
- School of Humanities and Social Sciences
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- School of Medicine
As part of the Institutional Strategy, TUD has made a variety of funding programmes available for the implementation of the internationalisation strategy or rather individual measures:
- Funding Programme Internationalisation (with login protection) Initiating and extending international research collaborations and projects with international partners as well as (further) developing strategic partnerships; Increasing the internationalisation of the TU Dresden and its campus; Promoting and supporting internationalised teaching; Improving TU Dresden's position on the international stage
- DRESDEN Fellowship Programme for visiting scholars
- The Graduate Academy’s funding programmes
- SprInt Programme, a qualification in foreign languages and intercultural competences for TU Dresden’s non-academic staff
- „TU Dresden – Connected to the World“: Institutional Strategy funding programme for the implementation of TU Dresden’s Internationalisation Strategy (until 10/2017)
- Funding programme for Strategic University Partnerships at the Schools (until 10/2017)
- Strategic Fund: Internationalisation (until 11/2019) The funding is aimed at establishing and further developing central relevant strategic partnerships with international universities and science regions.
- Flexible Fund: Internationalisation (until 11/2019) The aim of the Flexible Fund for Internationalisation is to support projects which serve to further the internationalisation of TU Dresden and are in line with our Internationalisation Strategy or the decentralised strategy papers of the Schools.
- Special Programm: Shiraz University Exchange (until 11/2019) This funding is aimed at strengthening the connections between TU Dresden an Shiraz University by providing mobility opportunities for scholars.
- Funding programme for International Summer Schools at the Schools (until 10/2017)
- Implementation of International Offices within the Schools
Contacts and further helpdesks
- Chief Officer Technology Transfer and Internationalisation
- Internationals Affairs (formerly International Office and Staff Unit Internationalisation)
- DRESDEN-concept Welcome Center at TU Dresden
- European Project Center (EPC)
- Staff Unit Diversity Management
Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and Free State of Saxony under the Excellence Strategy of the Federal Government and the Länder