NEOLAiA

For three teachers from Bielefeld University, their first NEOLAiA mobility programme in Örebro (Sweden) was a double success: during the Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) ‘International Perspectives in Higher Education’, Dr Timothy Mc Call (Faculty of Medicine), Margit Offermann (Faculty of Biology) and Dr Anna Christina Nowak (School of Public Health) exchanged views with European colleagues on the internationalisation of teaching and higher education pedagogy. Whilst in Örebro, they also got to know new collaboration partners for joint research and teaching. They report on what they can take away from the programme for their teaching in Bielefeld and for joint European teaching. 

The BIP was led and facilitated by NEOLAiA representatives from Work Package 2. Dr Fabian Schumacher from Bielefeld, Head of Higher Education Pedagogy and Teaching Development at the Bielefeld Centre for Lehren und Lernen [Centre for teaching and learning], was on site as a facilitator. The participants worked on topics including internationalisation, sustainability, artificial intelligence, digitalisation and student-centred teaching formats. 

Dr Timothy Mc Call, a postdoctoral researcher at the Medical School OWL, is delighted with the new research contacts he has made: “Through NEOLAiA, I was able to establish links with the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Tours in France,” he says. “We are currently planning a joint research project.” He has also established contacts with researchers in the neurosciences at the University of Nicosia (Cyprus). He adds: “Many of the topics I focus on in my work also play an important role at other European universities – and we have good points of contact.” 

Dr Anna Christina Nowak, Academic Lecturer at the Bielefeld School of Public Health, emphasises the inspiration she has drawn from the Blended Intensive Programme for her teaching: “We discussed at length how we can incorporate international perspectives into our courses,” she says. “That motivated me to work specifically with colleagues, for example as part of a COIL.” 

For Margit Offermann, a research fellow and PhD student at the Faculty of Biology, the open nature of the format was helpful. “The informal and open exchange was fundamental to the Blended Intensive Programme,” she says. The discussions with international colleagues sparked new ideas for international seminars that could offer added value for students within the NEOLAiA Alliance: “I now have specific names and faces to put to potential collaborations.” 

Dr Fabian Schumacher was on site at the BIP in Örebro as a Bielefeld-based driving force behind topics in higher education pedagogy. In NEOLAiA’s Work Package 2, he is working with European colleagues on new forms and formats for international learning and teaching. He says: “The professional and personal exchange allowed many of the participants to truly experience the NEOLAiA concept for the first time.” Blended Intensive Programmes are better known as an international teaching format for students. Fabian Schumacher comments: “The event in Örebro demonstrated just how valuable the format can be for international collaboration at the level of teaching staff.” 

International teaching perspectives for Bielefeld teachers  
Teachers and lecturers who are interested in collaboration opportunities within the framework of NEOLAiA or who would like to run their own programmes for other teaching staff and students can contact Johanna Springhorn at the Centre for Lehren und Lernen [Centre for teaching and learning]: international-lehren@uni-bielefeld.de. Further information on specific teaching opportunities is also available here. The call for applications for NEOTeach within the European University Alliance is also open until 15 July: through the NEOTeach programme, Bielefeld teaching staff can integrate international and digital elements into their teaching and support students in developing multilingual teaching materials.