Newsletter from the Welcome Centre

Dear international academics,

We hope you are doing well as we approach the end of the year. In this December Newsletter, we would like to draw your atttention to our two upcoming Christmas events as well as to other events in Passau. We also have added an exhibition to our Recommendation Corner. Before you head into the holiday season, don’t miss the latest Lehre+ seminars and the PICAIS Fellow Talk — both are excellent opportunities to engage and expand your knowledge.

Your Welcome Centre

To close the year 2024, we have two Christmas events for you, to which you and your families are cordially invited!

On 12 December, we will be holding our Christmas party in Club Room 005 ITZ:

We will start at 17:00 with creative activities: making some Christmas cards and decorating our Christmas tree together. This is also a great activity for children. Afterwards, from around 18:00, the event continues with an entertaining Christmas programme and a cosy get-together with ‘Kinderpunsch’ (a non-alcoholic winter drink), ‘Lebkuchen’ (gingerbread), and some savoury snacks.

A special highlight will be guest musical performance by Christiane Öttl.

We are looking forward to spending a delightful evening together.

Please register for the Christmas Party by sending an email to researchmobility@uni-passau.de.

On 19 December, we will visit the ‘Christkindlmarkt’ in Passau:

We will meet at 18:00 in front of the main entrance of St. Stephan’s Cathedral for the ‘Thalberger Heandltrommler’—a cultural performance presented with eerily beautiful masks and costumes, accompanied by rhythmic drumming—to mark the Advent and celebrate the festive season.

The Passau ‘Christkindlmarkt’ is a magical winter wonderland that offers a variety of festive activities, including performances and a bustling market filled with stalls selling delectable Christmas treats and hot ‘Glühwein’.

Please register for the ‘Christkindlmarkt’ get-together by sending an email to researchmobility@uni-passau.de.

We are looking forward to seeing you!

Your Welcome Centre Team

On 14 November, we gathered in the ITZ Clubroom for a delightful international dinner. It was a wonderful evening of connecting over delicious food and enjoying each other's company.  We would like to thank everyone who joined us, and we are excited to see you at our next events.

As you may have seen in our latest Newsletter, our colleagues from KSL (Executive Support Unit for Competency Development in Study and Teaching) & LEHRE+ have put together a highly interesting and varied programme for International Lecturers. The topics range from AI in higher education teaching and diversity-sensitivity in teaching to various feedback and evaluation concepts, to name just a few.

The workshops take place in person, hybrid or online. All events are either held in English or simultaneously translated by an interpreter. The courses are free of charge.

Here are the upcoming courses:

Seminar: 68871b Gender- and diversity-sensitivity in Teaching, Examination and Supervision

This course focuses on two main perspectives of diversity-sensitive teaching: Self-reflection/Awareness and Diversity-sensitive communication in teaching contexts. Participants will learn about theories of diversity and methods of applying them to an aware and inclusive yet pragmatic teaching style. The course is designed to enable participants to acquire new knowledge and exchange their existing expertise and experience amongst each other in order to improve their skills and further equip their toolbox with inclusive habits and methods for diversity-sensitive education and communication.

Date: 05 December 2024

Time: 15:00 - 18:15

Location: Zoom

Sign up via Stud.IP, course number 68871b.

Seminar: 68867 Lunchtime sessions in #gutelehrelunch

Every Wednesday from 12:15 to 13:00 during the lecture period, our colleagues from LEHRE+ open the door to a virtual space where they offer ideas and insights related to studying and teaching, and warmly invite you to engage in a collegial exchange:

Student-centred feedback in university teaching

Date: 11 December 2024

Time: 12:15 - 13:00

Location: Zoom

Tour of ZMK with impulses for teaching

Date: 18 December 2024

Time: 12:15 - 13:00

Location: Zoom

Sign up via Stud.IP, course number 68867.

Seminar: 68858 Interactive lecturing

Lectures have been the most popular teaching method in higher education for hundreds of years. Although they have many advantages, they also have plenty of disadvantages. Interactive lecturing is generally defined as a method in which lectures are repeatedly paused and enhanced with pedagogical elements such as active learning methods, collaborative learning, and formative assessment, without losing the lecture as the primary tool for conveying content. The aim is to give students the opportunity to engage with the material and to promote learning as a dialogical experience.

Date: 12 December 2024

Time: 17:00 - 18:30

Location: Zoom

Sign up via Stud.IP, course number 68858.

Seminar: 68861 Teaching in multicultural learning environments

The number of international students at German universities is growing every year, enhancing cultural diversity, enriching the intercultural interactions among students and staff and enabling ‘Internationalisation at Home’. However, it also highlights the need for cultural literacy and intercultural competence, in order to prevent misunderstandings and promote development of positive relationships and dialogue. This seminar therefore focuses on culture and communication, first creating awareness of the participants’ own cultural imprints and resulting communication patterns and then uses this as the foundation to reflect on other cultural backgrounds and communication. The insights are then used to further develop sensitivity for possible hurdles in order to work on strategies to counteract these. The aim is for the participants to acquire a greater ability and range of approaches to foster appropriate communication in intercultural interaction situations that they regularly encounter, such as the classroom, tutorials, consultation hours etc.

Date: 17 January 2025

Time: 08:30 - 16:00

Location: (IG) SR 207

Sign up via Stud.IP, course number 68861.

“AI-based digital cheating at university, and the case for new ethical pedagogies"

PICAIS Fellow Prof. Dr Sandra Leaton Gray (University College London, UK) is currently researching at the chair of Prof. Dr Jutta Mägdefrau.

Date: 04 December

Time: 18:00

Location: PHIL HS 4

ZKK (Zukunft: Karriere und Kompetenzen) – “Future: Careers and Competencies” – has created many classes and seminars for international students, ranging from academic skills to soft skills. There’s a class for everyone; check out the full range of offerings in detail right here.

The Blank Campus Magazine team is hosting another book exchange event in NK-Cafeteria with live music and snack stands. There are several dates for you to drop off some of your books if you have some that you would like to give away. You can bring books that are also in English or in other languages.

If you don’t have any books to give, that is alright too! You can come to the event and take books with you.

Date: 04 December 2024

Time: 18:00

Location: NK-Kulturcafete

Book Drop Off Dates: 02 December 11:45 – 13:00

                                          03 December 13:45 – 15:00

                                          04 December 11:45 – 13:00

                                          04 December 15:45 – 17:00

This year, the Charity World Wide Wintermarket once again warmly invites all students, university staff, as well as friends and family to come together to celebrate the Christmas season while doing good.

Organizers: The Protestant Student Community (ESG) in collaboration with the Catholic Student Community (KSG), AllYouCanDo (volunteer program of the International Support Services), the Cultural Office, the GeKu/SoBi student councils, and the Gmoa.

Look forward to a magical evening filled with festive cheer! Alongside delicious international dishes and Christmas treats, you can enjoy warm drinks, live music from the student and international choirs, as well as various bands. There will also be dance workshops, creative crafting activities, and fun games from around the world, showcasing the diverse culture on campus.

Admission is free. We kindly ask for voluntary donations for the food and Christmas treats, with 100% of the proceeds going to the charity "Brot für die Welt” (Bread for the World).

Or would you like to contribute as well? Feel free to bring homemade baked goods, packaged in bags, which will be shared in exchange for donations, helping us make an even bigger impact together. If you'd like to contribute please fill out the following form: https://forms.gle/jYkyBEavdendF8Xy6

Questions? Please write to: esg@uni-passau.de

Date: Monday, 16 December

Time: 17:00

Location: Nikola Courtyard and the premises of ESG, KSG, and NK

To mark the 40th anniversary of the town partnership, Akita and Passau are showing the photo exhibition “flow / glow” together with the German Japanese Society in Passau. Japanese photographer Yu Kasanagi travelled from Akita to Passau for the exhibition in 2023, and photographer Klaus Ditté from Passau turned his photographic gaze to Akita in return.

In his ‘Akita stories’, Klaus Ditté interweaves individual experiences with universally valid themes. Numerous portraits will display intense encounters during his two-week stay, while at the same time revealing the full diversity of urban life. Other chapters of the series tell of the tension between urban structures and wild nature: here, power cables divide the airspace above the streets and trees are lined up like soldiers, a river flows wildly and plants overgrow archaic-looking walls. There is something timeless about all the works, and they are all in black and white.

Yu Kusanagi places the rivers at the centre of his colour series: he brings Passau to life on and by the water in unusual pictorial compositions. Kusanagi does not portray people, but harmoniously integrates them into the cityscape, for example as river flaneurs, boat passengers or water sports enthusiasts. However, the main protagonist remains the water in all its colours, shapes and reflections. The city is reflected in the river, but the river is also reflected in the city: it gilds bridges and illuminates windows.

This exhibition has free entry.

Date: 27 October – 15 December

Time: Wednesdays till Sundays, 14:00 – 17:00

Location: Kulturmodell Passau, Bräugasse 9

V.i.S.d.P.: Universität Passau, Innstraße 41, 94032 Passau
Welcome Centre, Tel.:0851/509 -1169
Contact for any queries: researchmobility@uni-passau.de