KU Linz: Internationalization and virtual mobility.
Despite the exceptional situation worldwide students, who were on their semester abroad during the summer semester (in Germany, Greece, Finland, Italy, and Norway), have completed their mobilities. Nevertheless, since travel - and thus faculty and student mobility - is currently only possible to a limited extent due to the corona crisis, KU Linz's diverse internationalization activities will continue in a modified form. A package of courses from the three departments of theology, philosophy, and art studies, in the framework of our second edition of the KU Linz International Semester (KULIS), will be offered in English. Via zoom, international students from six nations, including students from our strategic partner universities Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná (Curitiba, Brazil) and the School of Theology and Ministry (Boston, USA) will be working with KU Linz students. Then KULIS is not only aimed at international students; for students from KU Linz, the courses are part of their studies. In this way, KU Linz also opens up the experience of dense internationalization to its students. In addition to engaging with the contents, the exchange with international students and teachers also stimulates intercultural competencies and familiarity with scientific English.
International digital teaching
KU Linz scientists were able to gather international experiences in virtual teaching: Ass.-Prof. Andreas Telser taught the four-hour unit "Religion in the Public Sphere" in August as part of the English Semester Course "Brazil and the World Today: Contemporary Themes in the Humanities" at the invitation of Prof. Rudolf von Sinner (Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná). A joint zoom seminar together with the Faculty of Theology of Pontifícia Universidad e Católica and the Faculty of Theology of the University of Oslo will take place in November. Vice-Rector Univ.-Prof. Michael Fuchs took over the teaching unit "Chances and Risks of Stem Cell Research: Ethical Aspects" of the lecture series on stem cell biology at the University Hospital Bonn in June. Univ.-Prof. Susanne Gillmayr-Bucher taught at the "International Summer School on Hebrew Biblical Hebrew Poetry" at the KU-Leuven in early September.
