The International Component
The Bachelor's programme in Journalism is a so-called International course of study. This means:The ability of German students to move abroad is ensured by an integrated, compulsory semester abroad in the third academic year. This "studying-abroad semester" is attended to organisationally by the International Office of the Faculty and is prepared for and followed up in terms of content, above all, by specific modules. Agreements have been reached with numerous universities abroad, whereby they offer university places in part free or at reduced prices. The option also exists, in consultation with the coordinator of studies abroad, of choosing a university abroad on one's own.
• At the same time the attempt is made to achieve a balance between these outgoings and incomings, that is, to reach students from abroad. Nearly every semester students from Europe, Asia and the USA are visitors in the Faculty of Social Sciences. Since the academic year 2007/2008 an exchange programme has been supported between the IPSJ and the Manipal Institute of Communication (India) in the so-called ISAP programme of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) [German Academic Exchange Service]. From this, stipends for German and Indian students as well as stays for visiting lecturers from India in Bremen and in the other direction have been financed.
• Internationality also means that the view presented in individual courses and lectures goes beyond simply the German horizon. As a result, for example, trends in Europe and at the international level are observed in the media-theoretical seminars, also and above all based on the English-language literature.
• Furthermore, an integral part of the curriculum consists of foreign language instruction in English. Admission to the programme is therefore only granted when evidence of a corresponding proficiency can be demonstrated (cf. admission requirements).
• Cooperation with our foreign partners is also maintained in the form of cooperative ventures on the part of individual lecturers, for example, through shared research projects.
• Since the summer of 2006 a project with partners from the Dutch Hanze University in Groningen has been carried out in the fourth semester: International students from Groningen come to Bremen for two days in order together with German students to simulate press conferences in the form of role-playing and also to debate a current topic in English.