The strategic benefits of Balkan collaborations
The example of HWG Ludwigshafen
Internationalisation is essential for an innovative, future-oriented university since it has an educational mission to prepare young people for a globalised labour market and to equip them with the skills they need for a successful career. HWG Ludwigshafen’s clear focus on business and health programmes would be obsolete without international components – not least of all its cooperation with the Balkan states.
Growing focus on the Balkans
During EU enlargement in 2004, Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society already started to look eastwards in close dialogue with large and medium-sized businesses based in the Rhine-Neckar region. The numerous university partnerships in Southeastern Europe were the result of consistently positive and reliable collaborations, successful exchanges at scientific and student level and the demand from cooperating companies for graduates with expertise in Eastern and Southeastern Europe.
The KA107 programme («Mobility with Partner Countries», also known as International Credit Mobility, ICM), which was introduced in 2015 in the previous Erasmus+ programme generation (2014–2020), created the opportunity to integrate non-EU countries in the Western Balkans into the programme, promote mobilities, intensify existing cooperations and attract new partners. Without Erasmus+ funding, a study period in Germany would not be (or have been) affordable for most students from the Western Balkans.
More intensive collaboration thanks to Erasmus+
For HWG Ludwigshafen, this expansion of the Erasmus+ programme proved to be a real stroke of luck. The region had already been identified as an important location in the early 2000s, promising benefits and potential for both sides. After the conflict-ridden years, which also brought many refugees to the Rhine-Neckar region, developing a dense network of bilateral collaborations and diverse joint activities based on intensive historical ties and clear points of contact seemed a logical step. The geographical proximity facilitated and continues to facilitate a large number of mobilities, creating a familiarity and reinforcing a common perspective.
The university partnerships are reinforced by HWG Ludwigshafen’s cooperation with branches of the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) in Sarajevo, Pristina and Podgorica as well as with the German Industry and Trade Association in Albania. Their aim is to increase mobilities for internships in businesses, organisations and NGOs for HWG students of business and health science subjects. In return, students at partner universities in the Western Balkans can benefit from HWG Ludwigshafen’s extensive network of contacts with companies in the region in their search for internships or jobs.
Exchange on all levels
Many former exchange students already improved their chances of finding a job by spending a semester at HWG Ludwigshafen and acquiring a basic knowledge of German in their home countries. A large number of students from countries of the Western Balkans returned to HWG Ludwigshafen after graduation to start a Master’s degree. Successful double-degree programmes at Master’s level were established with the European University in Tirana (Albania), the International University Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Universum College in Pristina (Kosovo), enhancing graduates’ career prospects both in their home country and in Germany, especially given that the number of German companies and institutions is growing steadily in the Western Balkans.
A professor of finance from the University of Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina) has also been teaching as a guest lecturer at HWG every semester since 2018. Three professors from the Universum College Pristina (Kosovo) attended the graduation ceremony for the International Business Management programme at the School of Business and Society in October 2023 in recognition of the students’ having successfully completed the double degree. In addition to the traditional student, lecturer and staff mobilities, a partner network meeting at HWG Ludwigshafen and a multiday trip with students to Sarajevo and Tirana are planned in the near future.
A plea for the Balkans
Accession negotiations with the EU and prospects of EU membership have proven to be an important driver of reform processes, which are also reflected in educational policy developments. Reservations about the Balkan countries still so firmly impressed on Western European minds and existing doubts about the quality of the education systems there can only be dispelled through constant exchange and visible cooperation. And only in this way can we make this underestimated, diverse, meaningful and culturally rich region more visible within Europe. Europe does not end at the edge of the European Union.
Kerstin Gallenstein
