Challenges and Options regarding Internationalisation at German Universities

Policy papers of international and national organisations in tertiary education describe rapid internationalisation in research and teaching as the engine of globalised knowledge. Rankings – both international and national – nowadays attempt to measure the success of internationalisation using quantifiable and non-quantifiable indicators and thereby make internationalisation efforts comparable across the globe. This article intends to outline some of the pertinent structures of internationalisation in tertiary education, followed by a reflection of weaknesses and challenges commonly associated with internationalisation efforts in Germany before sharing some strategies drawn from our home university – the University of Cologne – devised to address these challenges.

This article was published in Issue 2, 2015 of the Internationalisation of Higher Education, an EAIE Handbook. From 2011–2015, the EAIE was the Editor of Internationalisation of Higher Education Handbook, published by Raabe Academic Publishers (Berlin). The EAIE holds joint copyright of all 2015 articles with DUZ Verlags- und Medienhaus GmbH.

— Authors: Michael Bollig, Stephanie Bölts and Christina Elger