Meine Auslandskontakte für den Fachbereich Wirtschaft der FH Bielefeld
Im Mai 2008 fand an der FH Bielefeld die 20-Jahrfeier des Europäischen Studienprogramms Betriebswirtschaft und Management (ESBM) und des Europäischen Studiengangs Management (ESM) statt.
Als Auslandsbeauftragter des Fachbereichs Wirtschaft (1982-1989) war ich an der Errichtung eines europäischen Hochschulnetzwerkes und an der Schaffung eines europäischen Studienganges maßgeblich beteiligt.
Anlässlich der 20-Jahrfeier hielt ich am 29.5.2008 den folgenden Vortrag über die Entstehungsgeschichte des Studienprogramms und des Studienganges.
Genesis (1981-1989)
of the
Diplôme Européen de Management international (D.E.M.I.)
Europäisches Studienprogramm in Betriebswirtschaft und Management (ESBM)
and the Europäischer Studiengang Management ESM)
European Diploma in Business and Management
Diploma Europeu de Gestió Internacional
Universities
Université de Valenciennes et du Hainaut Cambrésis
Fachhochschule Bielefeld
Portsmouth Polytechnic
Hogeschool voor Economische Studies, Rotterdam
Escola Universitaria d’Estudis Empresarials d’Osona,Vic
Meine Damen und Herren, Mesdames, Messieurs, señoras y señores, Dames en Heren, Ladies and Gentlemen,
my young colleague Lenz asked me for some remarks in English about the beginning of the European Management Program.
I’ll start with my remarks about the period from 1981 to June 1989 when I was responsible for the program.
Then I’ll show you a chronological table and some photos and documents of this period.
Well, we started our international cooperation in 1981 and as you see this cooperation still exists and is much larger nowadays we ever thought.
But who and how started this cooperation?
In the month of July 1981 the late Dean of our department Horst Nägler rang me up and asked me to prepare a program for the visit of a small group of colleagues and students from the French University of Valenciennes. “But, I’m not sure whether they’ll really come”, he said, “you know they are Frenchmen”. They did come: Monsieur Lecocq and his colleague Madame Menar and 12 students. And they were more Prussian (that means in Germany “reliable”) than many a German.
The idea of the cooperation came from my colleague Alain Lecocq. He persuaded this idea with energy and we joined his idea.
It is a pity that he cannot be here. I he fell ill as he told us in his email.
We agreed that the cooperation between our universities must be a cooperation first of all for our students but also for the lecturers.
- Our first target was the improvement of the foreign language qualification.
We were convinced that our students needed a higher qualification in foreign languages in order to speak fluently French and German. The best mean to reach this first goal was an exchange of students. They have to live in the other country and to study there. - Living and studying in a country means to learn a lot of the culture, behaviour, rules and customs and finally not to forget the taboos of the host society. In this way students obtain also a social competence and even an international competence.
- We also thought that our students need a practical experience in business houses in the host country in order to qualify them for international jobs.
We intend to form a new generation of European Managers or even of International Managers.
(By the way one of our German students studying in Valenciennes wrote her thesis about the different behaviour and methods of German and French Managers to negotiate a treaty.) - To improve the understanding between our students and lecturers we started with visits for a period of one week either in Valenciennes or in Bielefeld every year. These European weeks included common lectures, visits of companies and sight-seeing tours of the town and the region.
- Finally we organized many meetings to find the equivalents of our lectures.
These conferences enabled us simultaneously to bring together our colleagues and to integrate them in the cooperation.
This was a very important aspect in order to improve the acceptance of our cooperation.
I want to thank all my colleagues for the support as for example my colleague Sauermann who showed our guests his psychological laboratory, my colleague Reiser who organized our excursions during the European week and last nor least my colleague Winterhager who discussed the equivalent of our lectures in accounting.
But it is very difficult to count the lectures from 1981 to 1989. I guess that we had about 40 lectures.
Soon after the beginning of our cooperation with Valenciennes in 1982 I asked my colleague Rolf Wöller to join the project which he did with great enthusiasm.
When our department committee decided in May 1983 to cooperate with the University of Valenciennes the committee also confirmed M. Wöller as deputy manager and me as project manager.
A very imported date for the cooperation between Valenciennes and Bielefeld was the 19th of March 1984: An Agreement about a partnership between the University of Valenciennes and the Fachhochschule Bielefeld was signed by M. Obert (Directeur de l’Institut Universitaire de Valenciennes) and M. Wegmann (Rektor (President) of the Fachhochschule Bielefeld). This agreement embodied the exchange of lecturers, common European weeks, exchanges of students, placements in industry and joint research programs.
Previous to this agreement we had intensive meetings and a visit in 1983 of our President M. Wegmann and the dean of our department M. Bramsemann together with me in Valenciennes.
The cooperation was not only intensified but we extended our cooperation with new partners. The first extension in 1986 was in the direction of Great Britain with the former Portsmouth Polytechnic (now Portsmouth University). This was a cooperation started especially by my French colleague Delhaise.The cooperation between Bielefeld and Portsmouth Polytechnic was mainly the task of my colleague and friend Rolf Wöller who is also here. I thank him for his enormous engagement for Britain.
For a contact between Rotterdam and Bielefeld and for other new partners I asked my colleague Willy Valder in 1988 to join the project which he gladly did. I welcome him and I thank him for his large activity. The first contact with the Hoogeschool voor Economische Studies (HES) was in June 1988 as my colleague Valder and I stayed in Rotterdam.
I’m very happy to welcome Mrs. Siddré from our Dutch partner. I hope you enjoy these days in Bielefeld.
In the same year in the month of December my colleague Valder and I made also a visited the University of Vic in Spain. I’m glad and very happy to welcome the former president M. Torrents in my mother tongue as he studied in my homeland Swabia in Tübingen: “Herzlich willkommen in Bielefeld, lieber Herr Torrents. Vielen Dank, dass Sie den weiten Weg auf sich genommen haben.”
There had been many difficulties and obstacles on the way we went together.
I already mentioned the obstacles in our department. There had been many colleagues who helped us to overcome these obstacles but there had been a lot of colleagues who hesitated to support our project.
The other problem was the lack of financial assets: Our department had in 1981 only a budget of 2000 Deutschmark for all international relations. On the other hand we seriously discussed in the committee of our department the problem how we can spend 10 000 Deutschmark for computers. That was the special budget system of German public institutions at this time.
On the other side we had the subsidies of the “deutsch-französisches Jugendwerk” for our European weeks and we had in Bielefeld our United sponsors and friends of the economic department (not the United Bank of Switzerland!) with the responsible man the late M. Holwe of our Chamber of Industry and Commerce who gave in 1981 M. Lecocq the hint to contact our department.
The lack of money made it necessary to organise and to finance our activities on the base of private resources that means that the colleagues had to dwell in the house of the host colleagues such as I did in the house of M. and Mrs. Lecocq and and M. Lecocq dwelt in our house. Our women prepared the meals not only for us but also for other colleagues invited for a supper to discuss our cooperation problems.
The next problem in Bielefeld was the lack an organization. M. Wöller and I had to organize all activities by ourselves. We were very happy that our dean M. Bertelsmann and his deputy dean M. Dickmeiß supported our international activities in engaging Mrs. Sentker in 1987. In the following years she was our service centre. We thank you for your overall service Mrs. Sentker: Vielen herzlichen Dank!
I’ll seize the opportunity to thank also my colleague Dickmeiß for all he did for our international cooperation. He was not only supporting our project as deputy dean but was a member of our Common committee named Paritätische Kommission and he was an important member of our group preparing the Europäischer Studiengang Management.
In 1987 we finally reached our goal of a European Diploma by theRatification of the trilateral Agreement between Portsmouth, Valenciennes and Bielefeld.
And we had 1988 the First Diploma Ceremony in Portsmouth for 17 Students.
This was a special Diploma for our German Students in addition to their Diploma in business Administration and Management. But my colleagues Wöller, Valder, Dickmeiß and I intended to create a separate course of study named Europäischer Studiengang Management (E.S.M.). We therefore developed the E.S.M.-program and sent in 1988 a request to the Ministry of Science and Research of Nordrhein-Westfalen.
This E.S.M. was after all accepted.
We are happy therefore to today to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the ESM. I wish that it will possible to go on with this course in the new form as a B.A. course in International Studies in Management.
Therefore let me finish my remarks with the famous title of Shakespeare’s Comedy
All’s Well that Ends Well
Chronological Table
June 1981
Letter of M. Lecocq to M. Nägler (Dean)
October 1981First dialogue:
Visit of M. Lecocq, Mrs. Menar with 12 students
March 1982:
Visit of M. Peto with students in Valenciennes
November 1982
Visit of M. Lecocq, Mrs. Menar in Bielefeld with 15 students
(In the following years the visits were continued either in Valenciennes or in Bielefeld for a period of one week and later on also in Portsmouth)
May 1983
Decision of the department committee Bielefeld for a cooperation with the University of Valenciennes and for M. Peto as project manager and M. Wöller as deputy manager
May/June 1983
Meeting in Bielefeld with colleagues of Valenciennes and Bielefeld concerning the further cooperation
March 1984
Agreement between the University of Valenciennes and the FH Bielefeld about exchanges of lecturers, common European weeks, exchanges of students, placements in industry and joint research programs.
June 1985
Conference in Bielefeld concerning the contents of a European Management Diploma.
April 1986
Visit of M. Burns from the Portsmouth Polytechnic
October 1986
European Diploma Meeting in Portsmouth Polytechnic
November 1986
Agreement between the University of Valenciennes and the Portsmouth Polytechnic
May 6th, 1987 Ratification of the trilateral Agreement between Portsmouth, Valenciennes and Bielefeld in Portsmouth
May 1988
Visit of M. Peto and M. Valder at the Hogeschool voor Econonomische Studies (HES), Rotterdam
October 1988
Visit of four professors of the Hogeschool voor Econonomische Studies, Rotterdam
November 1988 First Diploma Ceremony in Portsmouth for 17 Students
November 1988
Request of the department committee of Bielefeld at the Ministry of Science and Research of Nordrhein-Westfalen for a special course of study named Europäischer Studiengang Management
December 1988
Visit of M. Peto and M. Valder in Spain at the Escola Universitaria d’Estudis Empresarials d’Osona in Vic.