The Faculty of Business Administration and Economics of the Paderborn University places great value on its internationalization strategy and offers internationally-oriented study and exchange programs. One of the most influential projects is the “Asian Studies in Business and Economics (ASBE) program”, which was founded in winter term 2005/2006 within the framework of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) program “International Study and Training Partnerships (ISAP)”.
Based on the close cooperation with five prestigious partner universities in East Asia (Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing/China; EWHA Womans University, Seoul/South Korea; Oita University, Oita/Japan; Tohoku University, Sendai/Japan and Tongji University, Shanghai/China), intensive exchanges of students and teachers are especially promoted. In each academic year, approximately 20 German students are able to gain overseas experience at one of the five Asian universities. Meanwhile, more than 20 Asian students from the partner institutions can study for one or two terms in Paderborn.
Since 2005, the ASBE program receives full supports from the Faculty and has been gradually established and refined. At the moment, the program comprises two packages: One is the comprehensive Master study program for German outgoing students and the other is the supportive mentoring program for Asian incoming students. Based on the one-term study-abroad period at one of the partner universities in Asia, German outgoing students are supervised and trained before, during and after their semester abroad, so that the development of their domain-specific, interpersonal and intercultural competencies can be achieved systematically and progressively. Incoming students from Asia are also offered with a variety of structured didactic measures to get through easier intercultural adaptation processes in the foreign country. A detailed description of the program can be derived <link https: wiwi.uni-paderborn.de international outgoing international-students asian-studies-in-business-and-economics asbe>here.
In general, the ASBE program offers students from both Germany and East Asia a unique opportunity to touch authentic Asian and German cultures, to experience the actual lives, to become experts in economic and commercial issues and face excellent job prospects globally.