The recruitment, admission and education of international students are explicit goals of HSBI’s International Strategy 2020–2030, which focuses on the academic success of international students in terms of their suitability for the labour market and considers the entire student journey. The Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL) region offers excellent conditions for students to remain here after their studies: There is a high density of industry, especially SMEs, 94% of which are already internationally active.
The demand for professionals is high: while there is already a skills shortage of 44,000 employees across all sectors in 2023, this number is expected to rise to 119,000 by 2033 (Fachkräftemonitor NRW). Companies in OWL will only be able to meet this demand in the future with the help of qualified, international employees. However, there are still hurdles to practical implementation, both within HSBI and with the industry partners.
The measures planned in the “HSBI GlobalFIT Initiative” project support both sides in creating the necessary framework conditions.
A study examining the academic progress of several cohorts shows that, contrary to the general trend, the average academic success of international students at HSBI is significantly higher than that of German students. However, the number of international students is still low at around 8%; the aim is to increase this percentage to 20% by 2030. This is consistent with the goal defined in OWL GmbH’s most recent strategy process of supplying the labour market in OWL with 30,000 additional foreign skilled workers over the next four years. However, HSBI is often not the first choice for international students due to the small number of English-taught degree programmes. So far, only one Master’s programme (“International Business Management”) and individual modules are in English. For this reason, HSBI is currently systematically expanding its English-language programmes to include two STEM Bachelor’s degrees (“Industrial Engineering”, winter semester 24/25; “Mechatronics”, winter semester 25/26) and a Master’s degree (“Data Science”, winter semester 24/25).
As significantly more international students are expected in the short term, now is the right time to expand and reorganise the necessary support structures. The information, counselling and support services currently available at HSBI are not tailored to the needs of international students. A preparation stage is thus intended to ensure the recruitment and targeted support of prospective international students in the future. Another challenge is to ensure that a significantly larger number of international students succeed in their studies and are able to connect to the regional labour market. To this end, a programme with two parallel tracks, “Study Success” and “Employability,” is to be established to accompany the entire student journey. HSBI has already introduced a limited supporting programme for international students with a focus on career preparation, which is now to be significantly expanded in terms of content and scope and anchored in the study programme structures. The ConnectOWL careers fair and the existing mentoring programme are also to be further developed. In addition, HSBI aims to impart in-depth knowledge about studying, living and working in Germany and the OWL region in particular. To this end, a modular, web-based OER training programme is to be developed as part of the project.
International students report difficulties that are mainly caused by their lack of German proficiency (HSBI survey 2021), which have a negative impact on integration into their studies and everyday life as well as application processes. For this reason, the project plan includes continuous German courses throughout the entire student journey. In 2022, HSBI established its Language Center, which already offers German courses for refugees, for example. In addition, a concept for study-related German courses both in the English- and German-taught degree programmes has been created, which is to be further developed and put into practice. In order to facilitate the seamless transition of international graduates into the labour market, networking is also to be promoted throughout the entire student journey: through a network of international students and a further network of industry partners as well as in matching. The second network can be linked to the existing placement offices in the faculties, the Department for Scientific Further Education and the approx. 400 cooperating companies of HSBI.
Last but not least, there is no central contact point to coordinate all of this. To this end, the establishment of an International Career Service (ICS) is planned, which does not yet exist at HSBI. This should act as a hub for internal departments, external partners and international students in relation to the project content. Overarching project management will also be ensured by a steering committee, with the involvement of students, internal stakeholders and external partners. The regular exchange between the project managers and this group ensures that the project content is consistently aligned with the needs of the target groups and those involved in the project and that project implementation is optimised.
Due to the great importance of STEM subjects for HSBI and the regional economy, the project will initially focus primarily on recruiting and supporting international students in STEM subjects. Once the first pilots have been implemented, the measures are to be opened up to all other degree programmes.
