Prof. Dr. Matthias Schmidt has returned to Görlitz with many new impressions and experiences.
Prof. Dr. Matthias Schmidt spent a semester researching and teaching in Azerbaijan. He has now returned to Görlitz with many new impressions and experiences.
From October 2017 to February 2018, Prof. Dr. Schmidt was a visiting professor at the Azerbaijan State Oil and Industrial University in Baku as part of an international exchange program. In addition to establishing research collaborations, Prof. Schmidt taught nine semester hours per week in two Master's programs and a Bachelor's program at the University of Georgia in Atlanta (USA). Even though the program is run in Baku/Azerbaijan, students receive a double degree from an American university.
As an industrial and organizational psychologist, Prof. Schmidt was able to address current topics relating to global change, digitalization and occupational safety in his lectures and seminars. The lectures "Organizational Beauvoir" and "Work and Employment" also dealt with topics of leadership and diversity in working life. In addition, Prof. Dr. Schmidt offered training courses for the Career Center of the Azerbaijan State Oil and Industrial University. Prof. Dr. Schmidt received special support from the American Embassy in Baku for the "human factors and limitations" seminar. The American astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper reported on her space shuttle missions and gave practical insights into how she became a manager at NASA as a woman and the importance of certain precautions and safety measures to prevent stress during space missions.
The region is currently celebrating 200 years of German settlement in the Caucasus, which is accompanied by many exhibitions organized by the Goethe Institute and the German Embassy. As part of official delegations, Prof. Dr. Schmidt had the opportunity to visit some of the country's universities. There was particular interest in cooperation at the State University of the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic.
The development of international research cooperation is an important task of Saxon university teachers and is supported by the European Union, the Federal Republic of Germany and the state of Saxony. Internationalization also has a special significance in the current target agreement between the Saxon State Ministry of Science and the Arts and the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences. On the one hand, cooperation in research and teaching is to be established, and on the other, knowledge transfer and the exchange of students is to be promoted. In future, the EU and the federal government will support university staff on international development assignments. Many European problems can only be solved through international cooperation. Prof. Dr. Schmidt will intensify international relations with the Caucasus region and cooperate more closely with universities in the Ukraine.
From 19.03. - 21.03. 2018, a group of students and staff from ASIU in Baku will visit Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences. On this occasion, a cooperation agreement is to be concluded between Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and Azerbaijan State Oil and Industrial University in Baku and the students will be given the opportunity to gain an insight into student life in Germany.