Being asked about the most positive experiences of a decade as a professor at Fachhochschule Koblenz, the answer always includes Teaching Staff Mobility (TSM). Thanks to ERASMUS, I was offered the opportunity to give guest lectures at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki (HELIA), Universit� Paris XII, and the Technological Educational Institution of Thessaloniki.

According to my experience, only personal contacts to partner institutions have proved to be a solid basis for a network of academic institutions. Particularly in case of the University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki (HELIA), we are looking back on a fruitful exchange of students and professors. Over the past years, the largest proportion of incoming students came from there and we have had the pleasure to welcome not less than seven colleagues from Finland as guest lecturers here in Koblenz.

So far, the highlight of our cooperation with HELIA has been an exchange of professors for a complete semester. In WS 2005/06 four Finnish colleagues replaced me in Koblenz alternately. In return, I stayed in Helsinki for half a year in order to teach at HELIA, an outstanding experience, which I wouldn�t want to miss. I benefited in many respects, to be embedded in a different working culture is a big challenge.

An average number of 150 incoming students per semester from all over the world and quite a few professors from abroad make HELIA an international address. Consequently, all courses are in English. As it may be expected in Finland, the technical infrastructure is perfect, e.g. an online-learning platform, medial equipment of classrooms, and online-access to all kind of technical journals and magazines. Last but not least, I got to know the project-based learning approach, which can be seen as an interesting alternative to top-down lectures.

To make it short, teaching abroad is something which I can expressly recommend.

Prof. Dr. Schlich