Intercultural Affairs

Intercultural diversity is at the heart of Jacobs

Intercultural understanding is an integral part of life at Jacobs University; our multicultural campus is home to students from over 90 countries.

The university is in continous pursuit of optimized campus living, learning and working conditions for all community members; whether they be students, staff, or faculty. To achieve this goal, we develop various workshops, trainings, events and information to ensure that our community is well prepared to live and work together in a positive manner, across all areas of diversity!
 
A unique and distinct feature of the Jacobs University community is its high number and percentage of international members. Consequently, intercultural activities at Jacobs are manifold, spanning a wide range of cultural events, club and team work within the community on the one hand, and being purposefully induced administratively on the other hand. Most prominent are the intercultural living arrangements for first years, our intercultural peer trainings and measures resulting from the Intercultural Need Assessment, a survey including all community groups, from students, faculty and ataff to host families and alumni. A number of measures that pertain to students, staff, faculty and host families have been derived and implemented from the results of this survey, i.e. the development of an acculturation stress screening, offering workshops on intercultural conflict resolution to all community groups, offering intercultural information evenings on specific regions to the host families, an international workshop on campus about intercultural competencies of faculty.

Regarding the intercultural peer trainings, rising numbers of peer trainer applications and high attendance rates among undergraduate and graduate freshmen indicate the success of these tailored peer trainings. Titled: "Dive into Diversity, Surviving and Thriving at Jacobs University", seperate trainings are provided for both undergraduates and graduates. Led by peer trainers (aka. second and third year students), the trainings cover topics such as: What is Culture?, Classroom Culture and Academic Challenges, Interpersonal Challenges, Stereotypes, Perception, etc. Each training aims to not only inform students about the benefits and challenges of our multicultural community, but to prepare students to positively engage and deal with potential challenges. This training provides a solid basis for a great start at Jacobs University and the other workshops offered through out the year in association with other departments.

Further activities take place in the area of research (articles, grant proposals, workshops), education (B.A. program) and consulting. Students, faculty and staff are represented in the Diversity Task Force (DTF), the internal working group on intercultural issues.