Germany alumni sustainability presentations: Service to communities

TERESITA TANHUECO-TUMAPON

BACK at Kassel Universitat’s Institute for Socio-cultural Studies (ISOS) while attending a course on staff development on a full scholarship from the then German Foundation for International Development (DSE), Prof. Dr. Dr. Ulrich Teichler of Kassel’s INCHER (International Center for HE Research) delivered a lecture on the dawning phenomenon of international partnerships. (The academic rank of Dr. Teichler is “Professor” and his title is “Dr.”; hence, referring to Dr. Teichler as Prof. Dr. is correct.)Globalization as a terminology, according to him, undergoes a shift in meanings where “initially it seemed to be defined as the totality of substantial changes in the context and inner life of higher education, related to growing interrelationships between different parts of the world whereby national borders are blurred or even seem to vanish.”. Considering shift in meanings would allow us to interpret internationalization using the social transformation model where alumni use their offshore learning gains “giving them the tools to work actively and critically towards social transformation.”. Referring to this model, there are socio-cultural benefits in updating the privileged experience of us alumni acquired from training and/or studies in Deutschland.