The University of Passau is one of 24 universities which received an audit certificate in 2014 for their participation in the Internationalisation of Universities' audit, a project of the German Rectors' Conference (HRK) co-financed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The HRK instated the audit in 2009 to lend support to German universities as they continue to internationalise. Under the audit framework, HRK experts are sent to the participating universities to analyse the existing structures, institutional strategies and initiatives and make recommendations for refining and optimising the universities' internationalisation strategies.
Speaking at the award ceremony, the HRK Vice-President for International Relations, Professor Dieter Lenzen highlighted the importance of engaging in strategy-led internationalisation, warning that there were no hard and fast rules; instead, each university faces its own unique set of challenges that stem from its position in terms of study, teaching and research, the composition of its student body and its geographic location.
