The Study Visit to Saarland University took place between the 24th and the 26th of April of 2024, in combination with the Kick off Meeting (KoM) of CHAIn. This event targeted Top-Management level staff and provided an insight on Saarland University Internationalisation’s strategies and structure. The outcomes of this Study Visit for Top Management Staff were:

• Highlighting the benefits of applying internationalisation at an institutional level.
• Enhancing the know-how to implement internationalisation policies at an strategic and institutional level. 
• Facilitate peer learning and create leadership at the strategic level. 
• Create the basis for the development of international strategies on internationalisation.

These outcomes were achieved through the elaboration of a thorough-planned agenda with a series of activities conducted by Saarland University and in which different EU experts participated. These activities/sessions covered, among others: 

1. The internationalisation strategies of the University of Alicante (UA) & Saarland University (USAAR)

The two EU partners showed their strong experience in internationalisation as a result of many years of work. They highlighted that these internationalisation efforts would no have been successful without a clear internationalisation strategy, which has set the objectives and priorities for this action at institutional level. The two experts remarked that to monitor the good implementation of the plan as well as to improve the university performance in terms of internationalisation, include a series of aspects such as the need of make it an integral part of the general institution Strategic Plan and structure, to quantify and register the numbers related to mobility and to mantain and achieve new relevant partnership agreements.  

2. Partnerships & networking 

With a great experience in different relevant international and european partnerships and networks, the experts from Saarland University provided the participants with a series of steps to follow in order to establish and maintain the collaboration with other partners and networks. 

3. Leadership 

As this Study Visit was specifically targeting Top Management staff the host university also wanted to focus on leadership. The session conducted on the topic served the participants to self-assess what skills, attributes and attitudes they find important for effective leadership. Also, the speaker proposed to the Top Management staff the new model of leadership, the 5 seconds’ model which emphasises how high performance teams work well while assuming the presence of 10 specific concepts: adventure, democracy, energy, success, hierarchy, concentration, necessity, sense, fun, perfection. 

4. International Programmes 

Both USAAR and UA have developed international programmes by including the use of English, French and German or Spanish to attract international students, and also to encourage mobility of home students. International programmes are one of the foundations of internationalisation. They ensure a strong faculty engagement, minimised cost, and account with the strong support of related IRO staff.

5. Internationalisation within the university structure

The EU partners emphasised the importance of embedding internationalisation not only in the strategic policies of the HEI but also within the structure of the institution: allocating resources and building different services that facilitate its advancement. The host institution ensured that the Top Managers had an overview of the importance of not only having an International Relations Office, but of including internationalisation as a priority in other centres that are essential for incoming and outcoming students such as the Welcome Center and the GoOut! Service Center for students of Saarland University.