A globalizing world
In our globalizing world living and studying in a distant country is of widespread value. Staying abroad intensifies language skills, fosters key social capabilities, strengthens intercultural competence, and widens personal networks. In later working life overseas experience is a critical advantage in the competition for attractive positions and promotion.
The dynamic field of Information Systems
The ever more global environment is extraordinarily influential in scientific fields and professions that — like Information Systems (IS) — operate in an international context. However, in the IS field the international exchange of students is still challenging. Besides common international barriers like differing finance systems and constitutional orders of academic institutions, the IS field faces a particular obstacle: Due to its different roots and the diversity of its subject matter, the IS field is distinguished by a considerable disparity of national and local curricula. This divergence makes the combination of different university programs as well as the acknowledgement of credits achieved abroad unnecessarily difficult. Furthermore, the incompatibility of curricula forces universities to undertake costly evaluation programs of partner universities bilaterally, in some cases even for each student individually. As a result, for many IS students studying abroad is not attractive, since incompatible programs can prolong their studies.
Setting standards for an academic exchange
IS:link is dedicated to overcoming these obstacles. The IS:link course and teaching standards enable the comparability between programs needed for student exchange. Supervision guidelines and a directory of on-site services additionally help to create a successful student exchange experience.