Universitäten in europäischen Grenzräumen / Universités et frontières en Europe Konzepte und Praxisfelder / Concepts et pratiques

Border Region

Europe, Germany-France, Germany-Poland, Switzerland and EU, border region SaarLorLux-Rhineland-Palatinate-Wallonia, Upper Rhine border region, German-Polish border region, Euregio Maas-Rhine.

Language(s)

Français

Allemand

Type

Note on a scientific book publication

Main Category

Regional Development – Sustainability

Employment – Education – Economy

Governance – Power – Cooperation

Language – Culture – Identity

Theories – Concepts – Terms

Introduction

The volume contains many articles from politics and various scientific discipline, dealing with the question of whether a university in the border region can be a pioneer in the area of international and intercultural cooperation.

Summary

Universities in the European border regions are facing special challenges due to their geographic location. These challenges may also be viewed as opportunities. Political representatives from the border regions confirm their willingness to engage in stronger European integration in the areas of education and research. In fact, the spatial proximity facilitates international research cooperation, student exchange in general and creation of special coordinated bi- and trinational study programs. The site also leads to special research topics in subjects such as economics, law, literature and cultural sciences. These can be processed by scientists on either side of the border. The quality of personal contact turns out to be supporting pillar for innovative border-crossing programs in all areas..

Content

Frankreich-Forum, the yearbook of the Frankreichzentrum of the University of Saarland, informs about results and perspectives of transnational scientific cooperation in the university's different departments. It is a forum for dealing with subjects that are equally topical for Germans and French, but that must be viewed from different angles. The fifth volume of the Frankreich-Forum presents the results of an international colloquium conducted by the Frankreichzentrum on the subject of "Universities in European border regions" supplemented and updated by several articles.

The challenges and opportunities of "Universities in European border regions" are illuminated first from the angle of national, European and university policy, and then in light of various scientific disciplines in the new topic sections. The reports come from the German-French-Luxembourgian, the German-Belgian-Dutch and the German-Polish border regions, as well as the Euregio at the Upper Rhine with its interface to Switzerland. Transnational cooperation projects are tracked from a historical perspective, e.g. focusing on history, natural sciences or medicine. Contributions from economics, cultural and literature sciences, as well as law, convey an impression in turn of how the location of a university in the border region may serve to generate specific research contents as well. The examination is completed by statements from the working world in a discussion rounds dealing with the benefits of multilingual and transnational academic education. This volume is also noticeable for the diversity of points of view from politics, science and labour. Many articles were written by authors who have personally and actively helped design transnational cooperation.

Supplementing the subject focus "Universities in European border regions", the volume contains a number of short reports in which various European University institutions in Germany and other European countries present themselves, as well as a large number of reviews of newly published books on France, francophone regions and the German-French relationships.

Table of content :

Editor's preface

Report from the Frankreichzentrum

Sandra Duhem: A jumping board for Europe: A look at the work of the Frankreichzentrum 2001-2004

Focus subject: Universities in European border regions

The issue of the border region university from the perspective of national and European policy

Peter Müller: Interregional university space SaarLorLux – Impulses for cross-border research h and science

Jürgen Schreier: Cross-border university policy

Christoph Helm: The issue of the border region university from the point of view of the state of Brandenburg

Jo Leinen: Border regions as a driving force of European unification

Susanne Reichrath: Cross-border university policy

Christian Autexier: L’Université franco-allemande et la frontière

Jean-Paul Lehners: Coopération transfrontalière des universités dans l’espace SaarLorLux

Herbert Néry: Quelques éléments de politique universitaire en région transfrontalière

Gesine Schwan: European structural promotion and cross-border cooperation in the European unification process: Experience of the European university of Viadrina

Margret Wintermantel: Universities in European border regions: Critical marginal position – the avant-garde of internationalisation

Cooperation structures in the area of history

Rainer Hudemann: Cooperation structures in the area of history

Sylvain Schirmann: La politique franco-allemande de l’Université de Metz (à travers l’exemple des historiens)

Armin Heinen: Border situation as a challenge for history: Projects – Ideas – Issues of university cooperation in the Euregio Maas-Rhine

Gangolf Hübinger: The intellectual border region of Frankfurt an der Oder

Cross-border streams of purchasing power und regional development policy

Joachim Zentes: Cross-border streams of purchasing power und regional development policy

Gerd-Rainer Damm: Perspectives of German regional development policy

Gérard Calais: Problématique de l’implantation de grandes surfaces dans les espaces frontaliers: approche lorraine

Research coordination in natural sciences

Michael Veith: Research coordination in natural sciences

Michael Veith: Across the border: German-French training and research cooperation using the example of the interdisciplinary graduate college

Pierre Braunstein: La coopération bilatérale, « particule élémentaire » de la coopération européenne

Wolfgang Müller: "Keeping this institute alive and developing it" – Impressions on the cooperation of the medical departments of Homburg/Saar and Nancy

Pierre Alexandre: Historique de la coopération entre les Facultés de Médecine de Homburg et Nancy

Irmie Bouillon und Bernhard Kramann: Relationships between the medical departments of the universities of Nancy and Homburg – joy and pain

Culture transfer

Manfred Schmeling: Culture transfer

Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink: French-German cultural relationships from the translational to transregional level

Bożena Chołuj: Reproduction or deconstruction of the national stereotype when comparing literary texts in bicultural seminars

Vincent Meyer et Jacques Walter: Jeunesse et transmission mémorielle: Le cas des batailles sur les « Hauteurs » de Spicheren

Law crosses borders

Torsten Stein: Settlement of economic companies near or on the border - the EUROZONE project

Gerhard Wolf: German-Polish cooperation in the area of criminal law and criminal justice
Philipp Zurkinden: Extraterritorial application of EC competition law between Switzerland and the EU

Table ronde

Michael Veith: Discussion round on the benefits of a multilingual, transnational, academic education

reports

reviews

Conclusions

The thirty-one articles from politics and science verify the hypothesis that border universities are working under special site-political conditions and scientifically at least partially characterised by special structural and content focuses. What might be considered as a fringe position from a national point of view will often open up new opportunities from a European perspective.

The political representatives speaking during this international colloquium in November 2002 consider the cooperation of universities in border regions a model for university cooperation on a European level. Development of the university landscape is viewed in light of this overall vision. The Bologna process is to strengthen mobility of the inter-regional university space as well. However, consistent harmonisation of the university systems remains necessary. Internationalisation contributes to make the university site, more attractive and competitive. Cross-border university policy is also targeted at driving the development of integrated courses of study in particular.
Examples of new supranational relationships in the university area include the German-French university. The European university Viadrina in Frankfurt an der Oder, at the outer border of the EU, holds a special role among the border region universities. Not long before the accession of Poland to the EU, this European cooperation university raises high hopes for development of a new quality of German-Polish relationships.

The reports and analyses from the various disciplines show how border regions are used as "laboratories" for new ideas and experiments in research and science. The cooperation projects form structures in the area of history, where the technical methods make it possible to tackle painful shared experiences such as war and displacement as scientific issues, building new interpersonal trust on this basis. Generally, the humanities find the border regions to be a privileged research milieu for analysis of culture transfer and culture contact. Examples from economy and law also document the possibility of generating specific research fields based on the location near the border. These are then analysed in cross-border cooperation. The above examples of cross-border cooperation in natural sciences and medicine also show how much personal initiatives and contacts, as well as a shared institutional history such as that of the Saarland university as a "subsidiary" of the Université de Nancy, contribute to sustainable cooperation.

Further development of German-French cooperation and mutual exchange is not a matter of course. It needs continuous political and scientific support. Although technical exchange is usually happening in English in certain disciplines, such as the natural sciences, it is necessary to learn the partner's language, in order to include the personal level as well. This is vital for the cooperation projects. German-French relationships must be viewed and pursued in a European context today.

Key Messages

The volume's authors name the following desiderata for universities in European border areas: Promotion of the Euregios as shared living, cultural, economic and social spaces – Stronger cooperation of politics and administration for pervasive harmonisation of the university systems and reduction of structural and administrative obstacles for cooperation – Development of an overall concept for interconnection of regional, national and global levels of university cooperation in research and science – Reduction of language barriers – Joint presentation of universities in the border regions at international meetings – Development of a corporate identity and a transnational student ID for the universities of the greater region of the Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, Lorraine, Luxembourg and Wallonia.

Lead

Prof. Dr. Manfred Schmeling, Prof. Dr. Michael Veith (eds.), Frankreichzentrum der Universität des Saarlandes

Contributions

Germany: Deutsch-Französische Hochschule, Saarbrücken; Europa-Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder; Landesregierung des Saarlandes: Ministerpräsident, Ministerium für Bildung, Kultur und Wissenschaft und Ministerium für Umwelt; Landesregierung Brandenburg: Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur; RWTH Aachen; Universität des Saarlandes.

Belgium: Collège d’Europe, Brugge.

France: Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Strasbourg; Préfecture de Région Lorraine; Université de Metz; Université de Nancy; Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg.

Italy: European University Institute, Florenz; International University Institute for European Studies, Gorizia.

Luxembourg: Université du Luxembourg.

Poland: Collegium Polonicum, Slubice.

Swissz: Universität Basel.

European Institutions: Europa-Parlament.

Links

www.uni-saarland.de/fz

Keywords