Vilnius • Oslo • Twente • Harvard • Twente • Dortmund: Not only because of the stations of her personal academic career was Prof. Dr. Liudvika Leišytė virtually predestined to be the keynote speaker for this year’s Global Young Faculty Event of the Research Academy Ruhr on the impact of going abroad. In her current research as well, the Professor of Higher Education and Deputy Director at the Center for Higher Education (zhb) at TU Dortmund University focuses on the activities and productivity of mobile academics – especially the balance between teaching and research, which many scholars struggle with. She presented the results of her study in seven countries and derived, among other things, the following recommendation:
Junior academics need to have more time for research and less time for teaching if they have a stronger preference for research. At the same time, promotion criteria should also reward teaching activities, since especially in the social sciences and among junior academics, these activities dominate in some countries.
After the keynote, four researchers shared their personal motivations, benefits, and challenges of gaining international experience in a panel discussion. While Prof. Dr. Jessie Pons, CERES (RUB), initially didn’t follow a particular strategy and simply “took chances”, Prof. Dr. Sebastian Peitz, Department of Computer Science (TU Do), was “pushed” by his PhD supervisor to travel, attend conferences, and give presentations. Prof. Dr. Doris Hellerschmied-Jelinek, Center of Medical Biotechnology (UDE), wanted to keep track of methodological developments in her field, while for Dr. Harikrishnan Aravindakshan, Institute for Theoretical Physics (RUB), an important learning experience was the difference between academic cultures: “While the professor in India is more like a father figure to the researchers he supervises, the relationship in Germany is rather purely professional.” On one point, not only the panelists but also the moderator Dr. Mark Halawa-Sarholz, Academic Managing Director of the College for Social Sciences and Humanities, agreed: International activities are, in any case, “shaping experiences".
Before the final informal get-together, participants had the opportunity to ask questions to the panelists. One of them was: “With the experience you have today, what advice would you give your former self in your first postdoc phase?” We would not like to withhold the answers from you here. Perhaps you are also considering a research stay abroad? If so, please keep the following in mind:
Be honest with yourself. You have to want to go abroad, but if you don’t, that’s okay. Because if you’re unhappy abroad, you won’t be productive.
Learn the local language as quickly as you can and get acquainted with the academic system.
Try not to stress yourself too much and keep enjoying what you are doing!