What's new for anyone interested in the international orientation of UdK Berlin? The federal and state governments are making savings, budgets for education and science are getting tighter and the DAAD is also facing major rounds of cuts. The International Office is therefore particularly pleased to have some good news for students, teaching and administrative staff in times of tight budgets:

The funding rates in the ERASMUS+ programme are increasing; in 2019, the International Office raised around €125,000 for EU-related exchange visits for students, teaching staff and administrative/technical staff. The budgets here also increased in the pandemic phases of 2020, 2021 and 2022 and the amount for 2024/25 is at a record high of almost €480,000. More students with special needs (including chronic illnesses, disabilities, social disadvantages, etc.) can be funded. Top-ups to the funding instalments are possible and green travel is also taken into account.

More is also possible than before in other funding programmes that the International Office acquires from the DAAD outside of ERASMUS+. Additional scholarships can be awarded to students, including 20 graduation scholarships for international students and 5 scholarships for more equal opportunities in 2025.

Numbers always sound good, but it's about people who want to get involved in an international context, orientate their studies interculturally and explore new horizons. The International Office will be happy to advise you on this and will be launching the STUDY ABROAD campaign again in November together with the exchange coordinators in the degree programmes. Further information and experience reports can be found on our website.

Ali Pourahmadian is awarded the DAAD Prize of UdK Berlin in 2024: our warmest congratulations! He is an Iranian artivist, interdisciplinary artist, dramaturge and stage designer and is currently studying for a Master's degree in Stage Design at UdK Berlin. Ali has been involved in over 30 art projects since 2010, spanning various disciplines and cultural contexts. He has also organised seminars, workshops and festivals. As an artivist, Ali uses different media to create performative art that shows solidarity with people and challenges power. He directed the 21st Tadjrobe Theatre Festival and curated more than 20 socio-political performances.

In his recent work, Ali questions the concept of the stage, pursing an alternative deconstructivist, emancipatory approach that defies traditional constraints like censorship, time and space. His VR audio installation, Pre/Ab+sence, presented at Rundgang 2024, juxtaposes virtual and physical realities to showcase absent Iranian artists in a Berlin exhibition, offering a new “stage” experience.

He is awarded the DAAD prize for his artistic work and his political and social engagement at the Berlin University of the Arts.

UdK Berlin is receiving funding of around one million euros from the DAAD for the project "FIT@UdK - Study Successfully And Start Your Career in Germany", which will be implemented from 2024 to 2028. The project aims to support international students and graduates by offering them tailor-made programmes during their studies and showing them opportunities for a professional future in Germany. The measures include workshops, mentoring, training and network building for the transition into creative and educational professions. UdK Berlin, with its more than 30% international students from 93 countries, is thus better positioned for the qualification of international professionals. The project is being implemented jointly by the Department of Student and Committee Affairs, the Career & Transfer Service Centre, Studium Generale and the International Office and is part of a DAAD initiative that supports over 100 German universities in qualifying international students as future professionals.

Since 29 January 2024 we have a new address for visitors:
Franklinstr. 28/29, 6th floor
10587 Berlin

From 13 September to 9 October 2023, refugees of all nationalities who are interested in studying at a German art or music university can take part in study orientation and study skills workshops. It is a free teaching offer in German and English at the Berlin University of the Arts, financed by the DAAD's INTEGRA programme with funds from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

The programme consists of numerous workshops in the following areas:

(I) Study orientation & application preparation - in German & in English
Information and coaching on study programmes in the creative fields of the arts and design; advice on application procedures and portfolio preparation.

(II) Intercultural Study Skills - in English
Build interdisciplinary and intercultural skills for study and work.

(III) Empowerment & Resilience - in German & in English
Here you will learn techniques to become aware of your own resources and train your psychological resilience.

(IV) Specialised languages for creative subjects - in German
We offer technical language German courses for four different artistic fields starting at B1 level.

All workshops are free of charge. They can be booked individually and up to one day in advance. If you are admitted to a degree programme at UdK Berlin, you can receive ECTS credits as part of the Studium Generale.

Further information and the detailed programme can be found here:
https://www.udk-berlin.de/en/service/international-office/fit-fuer-die-kuenste/

„Welcome to Study @ UdK Berlin“ – 3 Studentische Hilfskraft-Stellen für die strukturierte Unterstützung internationaler Studierender in der Studieneingangsphase (Interkulturelles Mentoring) und in der Eingangsphase von M.A. Programmen (MyMATE)

Gesucht werden 3 Studentische Mitarbeiter*innen (SHK) v.a. aus den Fakultäten Gestaltung, Musik und Darstellende Kunst für Koordinationsaufgaben im Masterbereich (MyMATE Programm) und für Gruppenaktivitäten im grundständigen Bereich (Interkulturelles Mentoring).

Die zu besetzenden drei SHK-Positionen haben jeweils einen Umfang von 28 Stunden/Monat und können in der Zeit vom 01.10.2023 bis 30.09.2024 besetzt werden, eine Verlängerung ist grundsätzlich möglich.

„Welcome to Study @ UdK Berlin“ – eine Kooperation von Studium Generale und International Student Services an der Universität der Künste Berlin – unterstützt internationale Studierende beim Einstieg an der Hochschule und beim Ankommen am Studienort. Das „Welcome to Study“ Team organisiert die „Welcome Week“ vor Semesterbeginn, bietet vielfältige Informationsveranstaltungen, individuelle Beratung und differenzierte Unterstützung für Ersties im Interkulturellen Mentoring und für Masterstudierende im MyMATE Programm.

Das studentische Team „Welcome to Study @ UdK Berlin“ arbeitet an beiden Programmen mit und bildet Netzwerke in die Fachbereiche hinein.

Aufgabenbereiche:

− Mitorganisation von Informationsveranstaltungen, Einführungsworkshops und diversen Aktivitäten für neue internationale Studierende in der „Welcome Week“ jeweils in der Woche vor Semesterbeginn;

− Koordination der Arbeit von ehrenamtlichen „MATEs“ in einer der Fakultäten (die „MATEs“ betreuen neue internationale Master-Studierende in den ersten Wochen des M.A.-Studiums);

− Durchführung von Gruppenaktivitäten für Teilnehmer*innen des Interkulturellen Mentoring aus einer Fakultät, d.h. für internationale Erstsemester in grundständigen Studiengängen;

− Mitarbeit beim kontinuierlichen Monitoring der Bedarfe internationaler Studierender an der UdK Berlin.

Anforderungen:

− Immatrikulation an der UdK Berlin an der Fakultät Gestaltung, Musik oder Darstellende Kunst

− mindestens im 3. Hochschulsemester

− Arbeitserfahrung, Interkulturelle Kompetenzen, Organisationstalent und strukturierte Arbeitsweise

− Teamfähigkeit und gute Kommunikationskompetenzen mündlich wie schriftlich

− Affinität zu und Erfahrung mit verschiedenen Kommunikationsplattformen im Studium und Alltag

− Sehr gute Deutsch- und Englischkenntnisse in Wort und Schrift, weitere Sprachen sind vorteilhaft

− Bereitschaft zur Fortbildung im Job.

Start: ab 1. Oktober 2023, 28 h/Monat, Vergütung nach dem Berliner Tarifvertrag der Hochschulen für studentische Beschäftigte (zurzeit 13 €).

Rückfragen und Bewerbungen mit Motivationsschreiben und Lebenslauf bis zum 12. Juli 2023 bitte an Flóra Tálasi  sgk_ @intra.udk-berlin.de  und in cc an Sandra Bayer intb10_ @intra.udk-berlin.de

Kontakt „Welcome to Study @ UdK Berlin”:

Flóra Tálasi im Studium Generale / Sandra Bayer im International Student Services
Tel: 030-3185 2946 / Tel.: 030-3185 2057

At UdK Berlin, we have been gaining intensive experience with digital teaching for more than three years. Many things have been tested, some discarded and others further developed. We now have the opportunity to work together more intensively on the perspectives of digital and hybrid teaching, because in 2022/23 UdK Berlin will be one of eight universities nationwide and the only arts university to take part in the peer-to-peer strategy consulting of the Higher Education Forum on Digitisation (HFD). We are setting ourselves two goals in the process:

- Internationalisation / greater international openness of the university through virtual offerings and

- Promoting diversity of the student body through virtual opening of university offers (especially for people from crisis areas).

We would like to have a practical discussion with as many members of UdK Berlin as possible, our partners from the Higher Education Forum on Digitisation as well as four external peers (experts on our main topics).

WHEN: Friday, 21 April 2023, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

WHERE: at Einsteinufer 43

Information about participation until 3 April here:

digitalinternational_ @udk-berlin.de

For the first time, eight International Offices of Berlin universities were able to submit a successful network application in the Berlin Quality and Innovation Initiative (QIO). The aim is to promote international virtual cooperation between universities worldwide. The project benefits from the diversity and quality of Berlin's universities: the eight participating universities HWR Berlin (initiator), UdK Berlin, HU Berlin, FU Berlin, TU Berlin, Beuth HS, HTW Berlin and ASH Berlin are setting out together as a network to expand their digital international teaching offer.

In cooperation with its international partner universities, UdK Berlin plans to implement digital international teaching formats (so-called Virtual Global Classrooms/COIL - Collaborative Online International Learning) with its network partners in order to promote the digital and intercultural competence of its students and teachers and to anchor an understanding of diversity and multi-perspectivity through the experience of other cultures. Students for whom an exchange semester abroad is difficult to implement will have the opportunity to gain intercultural competences as part of their studies. Students with children or with financial limitations as well as students with disabilities and first-generation students can thus acquire international competences through COILs.

The COIL network at UdK Berlin started in January 2023 with its first meetings and will dedicate itself to the project of international online teaching until the end of 2024 with QIO funding.

Contact persons and project management:
Regina Werner, Head of International Office
Jennifer Bartelheim, International Office
N.N.
Contact: coil_ @udk-berlin.de

With the start of the pandemic at the beginning of 2020, many new teaching formats have emerged at UdK Berlin - as in almost all universities. As a university of the arts, UdK Berlin has a particular interest in evaluating and strategically developing its digital offerings, some of which were created at short notice and under great time pressure. In the emergency situation during the first months of the pandemic, positive and challenging examples of digital teaching in the arts and design have emerged. As part of a strategy process with external participation of the HFD (German Forum for Higher Education in the Digital Age), discussions are being held in the winter semester of 2022/23 to gather and pool the experiences of lecturers, students and administrators. UdK Berlin was selected as one of eight German universities by the German Forum for Higher Education in the Digital Age to participate in a strategy consultation in a peer-to-peer format.

The goals are to promote broader internationalisation through digital or hybrid offerings and to increase the diversity of the student body by opening up UdK teaching formats virtually. Interviews and workshops with internal UdK groups at all levels as well as with external experts will be conducted during the first half of 2023 in order to jointly design an international digital teaching strategy.

Contact persons and project management:
Susanne Hamelberg, Personal Representative of the President - Digital Strategy and Online Teaching
Anne Renner, Advisor to the President - Strategy and Project Development
Regina Werner, Head of the International Office

Contact: digitalinternational_ @udk-berlin.de

Morten Østerlund Larsen will be awarded the DAAD Prize of UdK Berlin in 2022: our warmest congratulations for this!

Morten comes from Kolding, Denmark. He has been studying double bass at the Jazz Institute Berlin (JIB) since autumn 2019. Although he studies jazz, he listens to and plays many other types of music: early music, classical and renaissance music. At the Jazz Institute, he works as a student representative, is a member of the board commission and part of the student council (Fachschaftsrat) of the JIB. There he campaigns for more social activities and better structures.

In addition to his work at the JIB, he plays in several bands of the institute: in a duo with Zuzanna Jasinska, in Matthias Meyer's "Niemandsland", in Liv Sindler's quintet and as part of the trio "Morphlid" with David Soyza and Florian Fischer. He is currently preparing his bachelor project, a fusion of a string quartet and jazz trio.

He receives the DAAD Prize for his artistic work and his political and social commitment at the Berlin University of the Arts.

The Berlin University of the Arts awards ERASMUS+ special grants for students of all nationalities who had to flee from Ukraine and are therefore not able to continue their studies at their Ukrainian home unversity.

The scholarship holders will be enrolled at UdK Berlin as incoming exchange students for one semester. They will receive a monthly financial support of 1100 € (850 € monthly grant + 250 € social top-up) for up to 6 months. A degree cannot be awarded during the time of scholarship. A continous connection to the Ukrainian home university is required.

More information about the requirements and the application can be found here:
https://www.udk-berlin.de/en/service/international-office/grants/translate-to-english-stipendien-fuer-vom-ukraine-krieg-betroffene-studierende/

Good news: The International Office and Studium Generale have been awarded DAAD funding of over 100,000 euros for 2022 for the initiatives Common Ground, Fit für die Künste and Beyond UdK.

We all know: the increased number of refugees also demands more attention, better services and new projects from UdK Berlin. Since the introduction of the DAAD programmes* for prospective students with refugee backgrounds in 2016, UdK Berlin has been one of the few artistic universities to participate. Every year, new budgets are acquired from the DAAD programmes WELCOME and INTEGRA, which are available for projects with international and refugee students.

The student network COMMON GROUND, founded by AStA and GWK, has been active here since 2015 and can thus continue to be funded in 2022. The funding commitment from the DAAD on 11.11.2021 has caused great joy. One of the information and support formats created is the Common Ground Studio: here UdK students advise young artists who have fled or emigrated to Germany. And they open up access to the College of Fine Arts at UdK Berlin to prospective students who have fled or emigrated. This gives them an insight into the specialist classes and enables them to develop their artistic practice and prepare their own portfolio for a university application.

The INTEGRA programme will continue in 2022 with two thematic strands under the direction of Studium Generale: the "Fit für die Künste" programme offers free study preparation courses for international and refugee students. "Beyond UdK", on the other hand, focuses on the transition from studies to the job market and supports international students in professionalising their own artistic practice in Germany. The funding commitment that the International Office and Studium Generale have jointly raised for 2022 amounts to over 100,000 EUR for all three initiatives: Common Ground, Fit für die Künste and Beyond UdK.

* INTEGRA and WELCOME / Common Ground are funded by the DAAD and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Regina Werner

Dalís Pacheco Salcedo was recently awarded the DAAD Prize: congratulations! Dalís grew up in Lima, Peru and has been based in Berlin since 2015, where she works as an interdisciplinary artist and cultural organiser. She started her studies at the Arts Faculty of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru, followed by her BA in Visual Communication and currently her MA in Art and Media, both at UdK Berlin.

She has been actively involved with Interflugs at UdK since 2018. From 2019 to 2021, she has been a member of the Student Parliament and worked in the Intercultural Diversity, Antidiscrimination and Empowerment Committee, which led to the founding of the AG Intersectional Antidiscrimination. She is currently also a member of the KfC (Equal Opportunities Commission).

She receives the DAAD Prize for her diverse artistic work as well as for her exceptional commitment to higher education politics and her social engagement outside of university.

New international Master's students will receive even better support in future thanks to a new peer programme at our university. In the winter semester 2021/22, the subject-specific peer programme MyMATE will be launched in all Master's programmes. UdK students from higher semesters will be matched with new international Master's students in the same study programme and support them in their first months in Berlin and at the university. The MATEs provide the first-semester students with useful information and tips on studying and they act as the first contact person in their study programme. The International Office supports the MyMATE pairs with an accompanying workshop programme on intercultural and diversity skills. The peer programme is run by the International Office and supported by the Intercultural Mentoring programme of the Studium Generale.

Project coordinator and contact person is Sandra Bayer: sandra.bayer_ @intra.udk-berlin.de.

After almost two years in the pandemic, the numbers of UdK students who have finally started or already successfully completed their exchange semester are now on the rise again. We in the International Office are very pleased that a little more normality is slowly becoming possible for students, such as studying on campus, semesters abroad or internships abroad.

Since 2021, there has been a new ERASMUS+ programme. With this, the International Office of UdK Berlin will support hundreds of UdK students on their way abroad over the next few years. One of the five topics on which the new programme focuses is "Environment and Climate Change Mitigation".

Students who go abroad with ERASMUS+ should use ecological travel routes as much as possible; this is promoted by new travel allowances and top-ups for the use of sustainable means of transport. In addition, equal opportunities, inclusion, diversity and fairness play a greater role in all areas. There are special funds for students with disabilities as well as parents with children to make exchanges more feasible. Students with chronic illnesses can also receive additional funding.

Take a look at the testimonials to read what other UdK students have experienced at our partner universities in recent years. For GWK students who are interested in Spain, there is even a great testimonial video from Granada!

Are you interested in spending a semester abroad? In addition to the European ERASMUS scholarships, you can also apply for our non-European partner universities, e.g. in Israel, Latin America, the USA, Canada, Taiwan, Japan or Australia.

We look forward to seeing you!