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Published on 5. Februar 2013, 16:10 h
Bielefeld University and the Oberstufen-Kolleg cooperating with universities in Chile

Bielefeld University and the Oberstufen-Kolleg [High School College] will be cooperating closely with the Universidad Viña del Mar and the Universidad de Ciencias de la Informática in Chile over the next two years in order to improve the way in which basic academic competencies are taught in the first year of studies. The goal is to increase the study success rate in the first year and to further improve the quality of studies. The cooperation is receiving a grant of approximately 90,000 Euro for an initial two years from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). This grant is part of a programme for partnerships with universities in developing countries. The plan is to arrange reciprocal working visits by experts and tutors, reciprocal visits by research teams, and three joint conferences. It will commence in April with a visit to Chile.


‘We all have the same problem that the university’s expectations do not always match the ideas and skills that first-year students bring with them,’ says Dr. Andrea Frank who is heading the project at Bielefeld University. In addition, the universities in Chile have many young students who are the first members of their families ever to attend a university. It is not just the academic culture that is new for them. Many of them also lack the necessary basic competencies in language, mathematics, and reading scientific texts that they need for their studies. Bielefeld University is also familiar with this problem. Andrea Frank says, ‘Last year we already developed the programme “Richtig einsteigen” and one of its goals is to strengthen precisely such basic competencies. The universities in Chile also have programmes to tackle this. As we both face similar challenges, we hope to learn from each other.’

The fourth cooperation partner is Bielefeld’s Oberstufen-Kolleg [High School College] where the teacher Dr. Gottfried Strobl has already been running a partnership with the Universidad Viña del Mar for several years. The Oberstufen-Kolleg is an experimental school run by the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia that cooperates closely with the institution bearing the same name at Bielefeld University’s Faculty of Educational Science. It follows a reform-oriented approach to education and possesses more than 30 years of experience in helping a very heterogeneous range of secondary school students to learn how to study. Both the composition and the age of the students attending the Oberstufenkolleg are comparable in many ways to those of first-year students in Chile, so that both sides will certainly be able to learn from each other.

The project is being funded as part of the DAAD programme on subject related partnerships with universities in developing countries. The academic exchange should not only strengthen tertiary education in the developing country but also help the German partners to acquire professional knowledge on the problems of developing countries and a sensitive approach to dealing with them. The programme should extend the capabilities of experts through international experience and corresponding language skills that will help to further enhance Germany’s profile as a location of study and learning.
 
Contact:
Dr. Andrea Frank, Bielefeld University
Service Area SL_K5 – Department of Teaching, Learning, and Student Counselling
Telephone: 0049 521 106-4157
Email: andrea.frank@uni-bielefeld.de
 
Posted by MBorchert in General
Tags: hp
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