HRK audit: "Make internationalisation a cross-cutting topic for universities" (M. Wahlers)

"It is important that universities can empower themselves, the audit is a great tool for that, to make sure they can steer their strategy and internationalisation", says Marijke Wahlers, deputy secretary general and head of the international department at the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK), in an interview with News Tank on 16/08/2024.

The HRK was celebrating 15 years of their internationalisation of universities audit, a process to help German institutions in their strategy by committing to internationalisation.

"The voluntary audit process combines elements of self-reflection with expert external consulting and is tailored precisely to the profile of the individual university", states the rectors' conference.

Because internationalisation was treated as individual projects in the past, the audit was created "to signal to universities that internationalisation is a concerted effort and a strategic topic, the whole university has to commit to it", according to Marijke Wahlers.

The goal was to "have a process to make internationalisation a cross-cutting topic for universities", and…