Internationality and internationalization at Leuphana

The university currently maintains more than 10 particularly close international partnerships. These partnerships are of outstanding importance for its further development of internationalization in research, studies and teaching, and include above all the partner institutions involved in our wide range of international degree programs such as our Erasmus Mundus Master’s program and the Bachelor double degree program Digital Media, which is offered jointly with The City University Hong Kong.
Thanks to the European Centre for Advanced Studies (ECAS) research center and several double degree programs at the bachelor's and master's level, Leuphana ties with the University of Glasgow are especially close.

These international partnerships are an integral part of our wider global network of long-standing collaborations. In a variety of ways, all members of the university community can benefit from this network.

• Leuphana maintains cooperations with more than 200 foreign universities.
  A total of around 1,100 international students are currently studying with us. At the Graduate School, more than a fifth of the student body are internationals.
• The International Center oversees and develops the university's international relations. The team provides information about the worldwide exchange and mobility programs. It advises visiting scholars and both local and foreign students and employees who are planning a stay abroad or who are coming to us for a study or research stay.
• Leuphana is a member of the European University Association (EUA) and the International Association of Universities (IAU). It is also active in many international networks such as the Global Business School Network (GBSN).

Leuphana produces internationally visible research. Our researchers are involved in international collaborations and are present in the international specialist communities.

• Three renowned ERC grants have so far been successfully acquired by Leuphana researchers and exemplify the international relevance and charisma of research at Leuphana.
• The Stanford Ioannidis Ranking shows for the citation year 2021 that 16 Leuphana professors are among the 2 percent of the world's most cited authors in their field, thus demonstrating the international relevance of our research.
• Prof. Berta Martín-López, Professor of International Sustainable Development and Planning, is among the world's most cited researchers (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022: "Highly Cited Researchers" report by Clarivate Analytic).
• Prof. Christian Welzel, Professor of Political Culture Research, stands for internationally visible research in political science. He also serves as the current Vice President and former President of the world-renowned World Value Survey.
• Prof. Michael Frese enriches entrepreneurship research at Leuphana with excellent world-class research.

There are many opportunities to study internationally at Leuphana. Attractive Bachelor's and Master's degree programs are offered in cooperation with foreign partner universities. These programs usually allow students to study abroad and in some cases even lead to a double degree with the respective partner university.

• As outgoings, Leuphana students can study at one of the numerous partner universities worldwide. They are supported by attractive scholarships and funding opportunities, such as through the Erasmus+ and Promos education programs.
• At the same time, Leuphana is attractive for incoming students: Around 200 students from all over the world come here each semester. It is particularly popular with students from Asia (South Korea, Japan), the USA, France, Spain and Turkey.
• In addition, a large number of Leuphana’s degree programs are already offered in English. This makes it possible to pursue an internationally oriented degree right here in the Heathlands.
• At both undergraduate and graduate level, Leuphana offers a wide range of attractive international dual-degree programs, including an EU-funded Erasmus Mundus Master.

Digitization opens up new potential for the internationalization of study and teaching programs. Leuphana uses digital teaching/learning formats strategically to effectively combine digitization and internationalization.

• Together with Arizona State University, Leuphana developed digital seminar modules for students at both universities and used them in teaching as early as 2011 in the Global Classroom project.
• In the Digital Transformation Lab for Teaching and Learning (DigiTaL) project, funded by the Innovation in Higher Education Foundation, three subprojects are working on expanding and supporting the internationalization of teaching through innovative digital teaching concepts. To this end, solutions for technical, administrative and didactic challenges are being developed and tested to support teachers in creating digital and international teaching opportunities.
• The DigiTaL sub-project "Digital teaching/learning formats for the internationalization of the master's and doctoral phases" implements this, for example, by developing and evaluating courses and other pilot formats such as an international, hybrid panel discussion with the objective of systematic internationalization at home.

For students at Leuphana, the International Center is also a place to learn new languages, refresh existing language skills, get to know new cultures, and build and expand intercultural competencies.

• Whether Chinese, Spanish, English or German as a foreign language: students can discover and learn more than ten languages at different language levels and in different learning formats.
• Language tandems among students offer the opportunity to learn languages in partnership and autonomously in mutual exchange, to gain new cultural perspectives and to expand intercultural competencies.
• In the Self-Access Center, students and staff can, for example, take placement tests, access teaching and learning resources, borrow films in the original language, and exchange ideas with other learners.

Leuphana attracts international researchers and employees who come together on campus and contribute their diverse experiences and competencies to the university community.This diversity also highlights our attractiveness as an employer.

• Almost 8 % of the full-time (academic and non-academic) staff are international colleagues. Among the scientific staff (incl. professors), the figure is even more than 14 %.
• As part of the internal training program, employees have the opportunity to take various language courses and thus expand their language skills.
• Just like students, employees also benefit from support programs such as Erasmus+ if they want to enrich their personal day-to-day work with international experience: For example, short-term lectureships of scientists at European partner universities or further education and training stays of university staff at host institutions in other European countries can be funded.

Data collection is subject to a time lag, usually the previous academic year.