A Comparative Study on Internationalization and the Role of International Offices at Selected Middle Eastern and German Universities

Internationalization of higher education has become one of the most important policies for institutions of higher education worldwide. Though universities are international by nature, the need for intensified quality activities of international nature has promoted internationalization to be under spotlight of researchers, administrators and policy makers and to be an area for research. Each institution follows its certain way to govern its international affairs. Most Universities, especially in the 'Developed World' started to plan it strategically. This study explores the meanings and importance of internationalization especially that it means different things to different people. It also studies the rationales behind internationalizing higher education. It focuses on the four main prevailing rationales; political, cultural/social, economic/financial, and academic on both national and institutional levels. With the increasing need to strategically plan, the study explores internationalization strategies in terms of how to develop them, what are their approaches and types, and their components and dimensions. Damascus University has witnessed an overwhelming development of its international relations and activities. Therefore, it started to face a problem of how to deal with this increasing load especially that its International Office is the only unit that deals with the international issues. In order to study the internationalization phenomenon at Damascus University, the 2WH approach, which asks the what, why, and how questions, is used and in order to define the International Office's role in the internationalization process of the University, it studies it and the international offices of Kassel University, and Humboldt University in Germany, The University of Jordan, and Al Baath University in Syria using the 'SOCIAL' approach that studies and analyses the situation, organization, challenges, involvement, ambitions, and limitations of these offices. The internationalization process at the above-mentioned Universities is studied and compared in terms of its meaning, rationales for both the institution and its academic staff, challenges and strategic planning. Then a comparison is made among the international offices of the Universities to identify their approaches, what led to their success and what led to their failure in their practices. The aim is to provide Damascus University and its International Office with some good practices and, depending on the experiences of the professionals of the case-studies, a suggested guidance to the work of this Office and the University in general is given. The study uses the interviews with the different officials and stakeholders of the case-studies as the main method of collecting the information in addition to site visits, studying their official documents and their websites. The study belongs to qualitative research that has an action dimension in it since the recommendations will be applied in the International Office. The study concludes with few learned lessons for Damascus University and its International Office depending on the comparison that was done according to a set of dimensions. Finally a reflection on the relationship between internationalization of higher education and politics, the impact of politics on Middle Eastern Universities, and institutional internationalization strategies are presented.

Happy growers! Relationship quality in the German organic apple chain

Relational factors between supply chain actors have been acknowledged to contribute significantly to competitiveness. With the example of the German market for organic apples the suitability of the concept of the Relational View for explaining competitiveness was investigated. Structured interviews were conducted with selected actors of the supply chain. Actors at all levels of the supply chain proved to be highly committed and described their business relations as satisfying and trustful. Strong vertical and horizontal collaboration was found. Thus, the Relational View proved to be highly suitable to explain competitiveness in the market for organic apples.

Verb Classes and Alternations in Bangla, German, English, and Korean

In this report, we investigate the relationship between the semantic and syntactic properties of verbs. Our work is based on the English Verb Classes and Alternations of (Levin, 1993). We explore how these classes are manifested in other languages, in particular, in Bangla, German, and Korean. Our report includes a survey and classification of several hundred verbs from these languages into the cross-linguistic equivalents of Levin's classes. We also explore ways in which our findings may be used to enhance WordNet in two ways: making the English syntactic information of WordNet more fine-grained, and making WordNet multilingual.

Leadership and performance in multicultural business environments a qualitative study in German-Colombian teams

Multicultural leadership is a topic a great interest in nowadays globalized work environment. Colombia emerges as an attractive marketplace with appealing business opportunities, especially for German enterprises. After presenting Colombia’s current political, social and economic situation, the thesis elaborates the complex subject of cultural differences while focusing on the peculiarities of German and Colombian national cultures. The resulting implications for a team’s collaboration and leader effectiveness are theoretically supported with reference to the landmark studies of Hofstede and GLOBE. By utilizing semi-structured interview techniques, a qualitative research enriches the previous findings and gives an all-encompassing insight in German-Colombian teamwork. The investigation identifies distinctive behavioral patterns and relations, which imply challenges and factors of success for multicultural team leaders. Finally, a categorical analysis examines the influence of cultural traits on team performance and evaluates the effectiveness of the applied leadership style.

The influence of parents' speech on the development of spoken language in German-speaking children with cochlear implants. 'La influencia del habla de los padres en el desarrollo del lenguaje en niños germanohablantes con implante coclear'.

Resumen en español

How to assess, plan and teach fiction and poetry 2 : key stage two, primary 4-7. 'Cómo evaluar, planificar y enseñar ficcion y poesía : etapa clave 2, primaria 4-7'.

Puede servir como referencia, cómo guía pedagógica o, bien cómo un recurso de estrategias y actividades prácticas utilizadas por los profesores en el aula. Describe los elementos de la estructura del texto y los rasgos más comunes del lenguaje poético y narrativo, define las características específicas de cada uno de estos géneros literarios, y las formas que adquieren textos y poesías. Se señala el modelo de lectura compartida y guiada como el más idóneo para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de estos contenidos, pues permite a los alumnos actividades cómo hacer preguntas, comparar y reflexionar sobre lo que están leyendo.

How to assess, plan and teach fiction and poetry 1 : key stage one, primary 1-3. 'Cómo evaluar, planificar y enseñar ficcion y poesía : etapa clave 1, primaria 1-3'.

Contar y escuchar historias forman parte de la vida de todos los pueblos del mundo, cada cultura tiene su propio patrimonio de relatos, cuentos, historias orales, mitos, leyendas. Es un medio para la transmisión de valores culturales, creencias religiosas, pensamientos y acciones. De ahí, la importancia de la enseñanza de la ficción y de la poesía a los niños desde muy temprano; con la lectura, los niños muestran sus capacidades para decodificar y comprender los textos, y también para reflexionar sobre ellos, con lo que se les abren oportunidades para hacer preguntas e indagaciones, recibir valores morales y encontrarse con problemas éticos.

How to assess, plan and teach fiction and poetry 2 : key stage two, primary 4-7. 'Cómo evaluar, planificar y enseñar ficcion y poesía : etapa clave 1, primaria 1-3'.

Puede servir como referencia, cómo guía pedagógica o, bien cómo un recurso de estrategias y actividades prácticas utilizadas por los profesores en el aula. Describe los elementos de la estructura del texto y los rasgos más comunes del lenguaje poético y narrativo, define las características específicas de cada uno de estos géneros literarios, y las formas que adquieren textos y poesías. Se señala el modelo de lectura compartida y guiada como el más idóneo para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de estos contenidos, pues permite a los alumnos actividades cómo hacer preguntas, comparar y reflexionar sobre lo que están leyendo.