Press release: Welcome Centre a service hub of the University - support for some 370 scientists and scholars

Nr. 223/2010 - 02.11.2010

Welcome Centre a service hub of the University – support for some 370 scientists and scholars

(pug) The University of Göttingen is among the winners of the ‘Welcome Centres Best Practice’ competition organised by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Deutsche Telekom Foundation and the Stifterverband der Deutschen Wissenschaft, in which German universities are judged on their international openness. The award acknowledges the assistance given in Göttingen to researchers from abroad and their families, in all non-academic matters before, and during, their stay. Constituting an integral part of Göttingen University’s institutional strategy, the Welcome Centre was set up at the end of 2008 employing funds from the Excellence Initiative.

Since then, staff at this central service centre in the Göttingen International staff unit have aided approximately 370 researchers in planning their stay and upon their arrival, and supported them in the course of the stay itself. The prize money of 10,000 euros will make it possible for this range of services to be further enhanced. Furthermore, within the framework of the competition, the initiative ‘Database for internationally mobile researchers’ is receiving additional dedicated funding in the same amount. The University of Göttingen is one of four universities in the group coordinating this initiative.

Göttingen University’s Welcome Centre is the central contact point for scientists and scholars coming to the university for a limited period, for professors and other faculty joining the university from abroad, and for all newly appointed professors in the scope of the Dual Career Service. Services range from provision of information in German and English, giving personal consultation, accompanying newcomers in their dealings with local authorities, assistance with arranging for German courses, accommodation, schools, crèche and kindergarten places, and events to help researchers and their families settle in at the University and in the city. “We have systematically developed information and service strategies and offer the researchers a helping hand even at the stage when decisions concerning a stay in Göttingen are still being made. Our comprehensive service also supports the staff at the institutes and within the University’s central administration”, points out Susanne Romanowski, Director of the Welcome Centre.

The professional and tailor-made service arrangements find high appreciation among the researchers. “The Welcome Centre does justice to its name in the best sense”, says Dr. Jens Schneeweiß. A research assistant at the Department for Pre- and Ancient History, he has prepared the stays of several visiting scholars from Russia with the Welcome Centre’s support. Likewise, Dr. Noah Mizrahi from Jerusalem received help from the staff of the Welcome Centre. “Without this help it would have been practically impossible to deal with the foreign bureaucracy while at the same time getting started on the research”, the visiting researcher at the Theological Faculty explains. Prof. Dr. Xiaoming Fu, Director of the Computer Networks Research Unit at the Institute of Computer Science, praises the “warm-hearted and wide-ranging” service received by several foreign young researchers at the institute. “The Welcome Centre is highly significant for our University and for our increasingly international research”, says Prof. Fu.

In the context of Göttingen University’s strategy for internationalisation, the Welcome Centre plays an important role in attracting outstanding researchers from abroad. The range of services it offers is now to be further extended. Additional information events dealing, for example, with tax, insurance and pensions, and events to help integrate researchers and their families into life in Göttingen, are currently in planning. Moreover, the staff continue to be on the lookout for suitable apartments for visiting scientists and scholars and intend to contribute to the further internationalisation of the University administration by making available English-language information material and documentation. In order to be able to handle efficiently the growing numbers of inquiries from academics, the electronic database planned jointly with other universities is to be launched in the coming year. In awarding additional funding for this project in the framework of the Best Practice competition, the jury is expressing its recognition of the increased cooperation and networking now taking place between the centres.