The NAFSA Conference & Expo took place for the 75th time at the end of May 2023 and is the world's largest and most competitive trade fair and conference on internationalisation in higher education. As such, over 8000 people from all over the world attended the event in 2023. Professor Link, who co-organised the NAFSA poster exhibition with over 100 exhibits on a voluntary basis for the second time, was responsible for the poster theme "Internationalising the Campus". Together with a colleague from South Africa's Cape Town University, she presented research findings on intercultural aspects of short-term programmes on her own poster and, together with two colleagues from the Asian TH AB partner universities Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo and National Taipei University of Business, she held an academic session on the topic of female empowerment in higher education in Germany, Japan and Taiwan.
In addition, Professor Link met with representatives of future and current TH AB partner universities – including the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas in Lima, Hiroshima Shudo University, Sungshin University in Seoul and the University of Málaga – to maintain contacts and for discussing collaboration possibilities.
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Poster exhibition NAFSA with Nicola Latchiah (left) from Cape Town University
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Session NAFSA: Prof. Dr. Renate Link (in the middle) wirth Michelle Guo (National Taipei University of Business) and Eriko Katsumata (Aoyama Gakuin University)
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City Center Mall Washington
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Campus St. Francis College
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Skyline of Manhattan at night
Following NAFSA, Prof. Dr. Link visited the Post-NAFSA Partner Days at St. Francis College, the new partner university of TH Aschaffenburg in the New York borough of Brooklyn. St. Francis College was founded in 1859 by a group of Franciscan monks. It has a hypermodern inner-city campus on three high-rise floors and is home to over 2600 students today. Students of TH Aschaffenburg have the opportunity to spend their semester abroad there at reduced tuition rates.
The college's dormitory is located directly on the waterfront of the affluent and secure Brooklyn Heights with unparalleled (and usually priceless) views of the Manhattan skyline. The Brooklyn Heights are also the setting for the brand-new New York Times bestselling novel Pineapple Street: A Novel by Jenny Jackson. "If you have a longing for New York, want to get in the mood for a stay abroad at St. Francis College and at the same time prepare for exams in English, I recommend this read," says Prof. Dr. Link, who also heads the language centre at TH Aschaffenburg.
Picture at the top (f.l.t.r.): Prof. Dr. Renate Link, Nicola Latchiah from Cape Town University and Prof. Mitsuko Takei from Hiroshima Shudo University
