Anat Stavans, Prof. in Applied Linguistics and Director of Research Authority at Beit Berl College in Israel, visited the University of Innsbruck in October 2016 and again in February 2017. She was invited by Prof. Ulrike Jessner-Schmid from the Department of English and her stay was funded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences and a travel grant from AIANI. During her stay in Innsbruck, Prof. Stavans was not only working on joint research projects in the field of multilingualism and applied linguistics, but also met with colleagues from different departments (e.g. linguistics, history, the School of Education, literature etc.) within the University of Innsbruck to explore possibilities for future cooperation.
Beit Berl College is a multidisciplinary college with 10.000 students and over 700 faculty, focusing on training educators while spearheading new developments in education, society and the arts. The college was founded in 1949 and is one of the largest colleges in Israel. Beit Berl College was the first college of education to be recognized for academic excellence and gained the same academic independence as Israel’s universities. They offer BA as well as MA study programs.

The meetings with Prof. Stavans, coordinated by AIANI, made it soon clear that there were quite a few areas of common interest and the decision was made to initiate a more formal form of cooperation and to discuss the option for a wider exchange of students and faculty as well as to promote future joint research projects and grant applications. To further this discussion and to provide a framework for this collaboration, a Memorandum of Understanding was prepared by the two institutions. The agreement was signed by Rektor Tilmann Märk and President Tamar Ariav and went into effect on July 1, 2016. It will provide the possibility for a joint think tank group to work out the parameters for the future exchange. Both institutions agreed to work towards a joint Erasmus + application and a regular exchange. AIANI is very pleased with these new ties to Israel and is highly looking forward to this new cooperation! We thank all parties involved for their dedication and commitment!

After last year’s success and great feedback from former students, a new group of six students from the University of Innsbruck will again participate in the summer university program at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Israel). The students come from various fields of study and will all take classes to learn the Hebrew language as well as learn about Israeli culture, history, economy and politics.

For the first time, this program is supported by a generous scholarship from the “Förderkreis 1669” of the University of Innsbruck. The Förderkreis is fully sponsoring two students to participate in the program.