Erasmus+ staff training mobility programme enabled me to visit Karelia UAS’ two long-term partners Hof University of Applied Sciences and Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau 5.-13.4.2025.
The internal application process captured the key elements including a short description of my role together with special interests that I had. These included integration and immigration, support services for international degree students in integration and employment, other services and study possibilities provided to immigrants, refugee work, accessibility of higher education for immigrants, diversity and equality. My overall aim was to share and familiarize myself with support services for immigrants and international degree students in the universities, joint discussions with peers, getting to know the German UAS system, local and regional partnerships between the UAS’ and stakeholders and finding about RDI activities related to the theme. Based on the proposal both UAS’ made programmes for the visit. These were discussed and slightly amended during further Teams -meetings before the exchange. I must say that the programmes had been planned very well and the welcome I received from both of my hosts were wonderful. I will always treasure this.
Due to the long distance, I left Joensuu on Saturday afternoon with a connection via Helsinki to Berlin. I liked that I arrived early evening as I still had an opportunity to walk around the city and visit some tourist attractions. I also did the same next morning before embarking on a long train journey to town of Hof which is located northeastern corner of the German state of Bavaria, in the Franconian region, at the Czech border.
The public transport in Germany is quite straight forward and easy to use. It is a bit more old-fashioned than in Finland in that you buy your train/metro travel tickets in advance, but you also must validate them separately by stamping them in another machine.
Hof University of Applied Sciences
At Hof University of Applied Sciences I met with colleagues from the International Office, had a campus tour and informative meetings with Graduate School, Housing Office, Welcome Center, FIT-Project and Refugee Support. In particular, I was impressed about how their international student journey has been captured to Moodle as a one process. That is something I would like to explore further at Karelia. I also gave a brief presentation about student exchange and Karelia UAS for students during a small study abroad fair. It was wonderful to note that Karelia among other partner universities were clearly displayed on the campus.
The return journey from Hof to Berlin was unfortunately delayed and took around 9 hours in total. It is good to be flexible and to prepare for unexpected as you never know what might happen.
Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau
At Wildau I learned about the European Business Management Master programme, Wildau Foundation Year preparatory programme and the work International Office does. We talked in great length about integrating students into the university community and the job market. I shared the work Karelia UAS has been doing and developing including Talent Hub Eastern Finland -project (ESF+).
I also attended Language Tandem kick-off meeting: a voluntary programme for staff and students who want to socialise and learn another language. People express what language they would like to learn. Then likeminded people get matched and plan different kind of activities together. I also got a campus tour during which students kindly shared their experiences and ideas with me. As a tip for future Wildau visitors, take your time to visit Café 21 it is unique cafeteria and the food is amazing.
Berlin
After my exchange finished, I had time to explore Berlin a bit more. Karelia UAS staff policy allows us to combine work trips with personal days so I added one extra day to my schedule at my own expense. Berlin’s highlights were definitely Falling in Love Grand Show which is curated by Jean Paul Gaultier and Dussmann das KulturKaufhaus bookshop on Friedrichstreet.
Altogether this was my very first staff exchange and it was amazing. My luggage is full of souvenirs: I feel inspired and expanded my professional networks abroad. I will take the partnership work forward in different ways in the future and have also shared what I have learned with staff members developing relocation, integration and employment services at Karelia. If you have not yet been on staff exchange, I strongly encourage you to put it on your 2026 to-do list. You will not regret it!
Text and photos:
Mia Sevonius-Male, Expert in Immigrant Work, Karelia UAS