Internationalization is quite a big word. What does the Faculty of Computer Science mean by that? What do we aim at?

That can be broken down into external and internal goals. To the outside, we want to communicate that we are already very international. We are not only attracting more and more students and staff from abroad, meaning we are already quite well-connected internationally. In international comparison, we also perform very well in many areas. That is what we want to make more visible, especially abroad, so that we remain attractive to excellent international students and researchers.

And what about those who are already here?

Internally, our aim is to make everything related to international affairs work even better than it already does. There are parts of the university where everything is still done exclusively in German. That is very different at our faculty. But even here, international students often feel a bit alone in the beginning and find it hard to make connections. We want to change that and make onboarding easier, both on the organizational and social level, for example with a special tutorial.

What is the faculty already doing to be attractive to international students?

It starts quite simply with the fact that all our degree programs include courses taught in English as well as courses taught in German. The M. Sc. Computer Science is entirely in English and maybe other programs will follow at some point. This allows students who do not speak German to get a degree here.

And what if I don’t want to do a full degree here, but only visit for one or two semesters?

We also have a long list of exchange programs of course, especially via Erasmus. Hopefully, we will be able to expand that and establish new partnerships. Those cooperations also benefit our own students of course and allow them to spend some time abroad. In addition, more and more options for virtual mobility come up as an alternative to a traditional stay abroad, mainly with the UNIC network. And in future, some students of Applied Computer Science will be able to pursue a double degree with the University of Tsukuba in Japan, which we are currently working on.

Quite a long to-do list for you then. You’ve been at the faculty for a few months now and are the first person here to work solely on internationalization: What were your first steps this summer?

First of all, I am not entirely on my own in this area: I work closely with Prof. Veelasha Moonsamy, our vice dean for outreach, transfer and internationalization. Beyond that, I’ve made many contacts—within the faculty, of course, but also with the Rectorate, the International Office, the Research School and the international liaison offices of the UA Ruhr. Plus, I needed to get a first overview of all the projects and initiatives surrounding our faculty, for example at the MPI or the CASA Graduate School. I also spent a lot of time setting up the new “International” section for the faculty website.

And what happens next?

In the winter term, I will be handling Erasmus applications and will also be involved in the application process for the M.Sc. Computer Science. Then I’ll be running the new tutorial for international students for the first time, including some trips, like a visit to the Welcome Office of the City of Bochum. In the process, I hope to learn more about the needs of international students. And we are always looking for opportunities for new international cooperations that might open up.

Do you have a favorite project or a region you’d especially like to work with?

For me personally, that would be England; I spent half a year there during school. Unfortunately, that has become much more difficult since Brexit, but I think it would be very attractive for both students and researchers. For now, though, we will start with contacts that we already have and can expand.

Sounds like there is plenty to look forward to. Thank you for the interview and welcome to the Faculty of Computer Science!