GoING.ábroad:: A discipline-specific approach to promote the mobility of German engineering students

摘要

The GoING Abroad program was designed by the project ELLI - Excellent Teaching and Learning in Engineering Science - at the Ruhr Universität Bochum in Germany in order to increase the international mobility of engineering students. A regular information session combines subject-specific information with student experiences and introduces contact persons at the university and engineering faculties. The format is accompanied by information material such as a newsletter, a website and a brochure. Starting in spring 2013, over 350 students have participated in the sessions and subscribed to the newsletter. This short paper explains the special requirements and according setup of a program that aims at increasing outbound mobility by encouraging engineering students to spend a study semester or an internship abroad. It shows how different stakeholders in internationalization can be brought together with a common objective to reduce mobility barriers and to distribute outgoing placements efficiently among students. It gives an overview of participation structure and evaluation results of the 9 info sessions conducted during the last four years. The program's overall performance will be considered as well as its acceptance among students and faculty employees.