Primary Partnerships

In 2011, Freie Universität signed the first three primary partnerships, with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Peking University and with a network of five leading Korean universities. To further advance cooperation with these institutions, Freie Universität has established an internal Fund for Primary Partnerships which allocates seed-money on a competitive basis to support scholars and faculty in developing joint initiatives in research and teaching. These efforts are flanked by the appointment of academic and administrative coordinators for each primary partnership whose role it is to actively champion the partnership and to provide assistance where needed.

More than an Agreement

The core motivation/rationale behind these deeper bilateral alliances is simple: Enabling the use of synergies and facilitating the pooling of strengths and resources through a closer collaboration in the field of research, teaching and administration. The goals of primary partnerships are:

• Strengthening research through the use of synergies
• Improving the promotion of young scientists, in particular through closer cooperation in doctoral education and joint supervision of candidates
• Developing unique opportunities for students, from joint summer schools to structured mobility patterns, to joint teaching modules and collaborative degree programs
• Advancing the Career-Path-Model of Freie Universität through reliable frameworks for the exchange and qualification of junior researchers and teaching staff
• Promoting administrative staff through structured exchanges
• Synchronizing efforts in raising third party funding for joint projects in research and teaching  

Further primary partnerships with universities abroad are currently under development, with the expectation that the total number will not exceed eight to ten of such alliances. This follows the idea of focusing institutional commitment on particularly synergetic partnerships.

Identifying Primary Partners

To identify potential primary partnerships, the Center for International Cooperation has developed a university-wide bottom-up process that is science-driven and reflective of both the Freie Universität’s faculty research interests and overarching institutional priorities. The main criterion used is the degree of activity and thus the scientific attractiveness of a particular existing partnership. This is measured by evaluating the intensity of collaborative research past and present, taking into account especially third-party funded research projects that involve international partners. This analysis is complemented by a review of the internationalization strategies of individual departments and institutes at Freie Universität, which were developed as part of target agreements and which offer a wealth of information on international collaboration. A university-wide active involvement across different academic units is not only a pre-requisite for the successful development of primary partnerships. It bares the potential of fostering new interdisciplinary networks both with the partner institution but also on the home campus, leading to positive effects for research and teaching.

Subject-specific Strategic Networks

One variation of university-wide primary partnerships are subject-specific networks in which institutions with similar strengths work together across regional boundaries. An excellent example of this type of network is the Center for Transnational Legal Studies (CTLS), a global consortium of leading law schools, including the Law Department of Freie Universität. The Center for International Cooperation supports the development of such subject-specific networks which can offer new opportunities for researchers and students and serve as the points of departure for additional cooperative programs and projects between participating universities.

Broad International Network as Key to Internationalization

Freie Universität’s more than 100 bilateral partnerships and over 300 Erasmus agreements serve one purpose above all: to ensure student and faculty mobility and offer students the opportunity to pursue their academic careers internationally while gaining intercultural experience. These agreements, which bring countless foreign students, researchers, scholars, and scientists to Freie Universität, also serve to internationalize the university’s own teaching and research activities. In addition to university-wide partnerships, there are also a large number of bilateral or multilateral partnerships and individual cooperation agreements on the level of departments and institutes, further complementing the broad and important international network of Freie Universität.