Four new international co-operations signed by the department of psychology and psychotherapy. Find out where!

“Everyone should be interested in a semester abroad, due to professional reasons as well as broadening one´s cultural horizon and in order to explore how psychology is practiced in other countries.” - Prof. Martin Tomasik, Deputy Head of Department and Internationalisation Officer at the Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy

Prof Tomasik, his colleagues and the international office have been busy building partnerships with the aim to give every psychology student who studies at the UW/H an opportunity to study abroad.

Last summer the University of Cyprus became the first new Erasmus-cooperation partner. The young university is situated in Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus. Cyprus has only been a member state of the EU since 2004 but has an ancient and rich history. The Cypriot department of psychology is very strong in research and has outstanding infrastructure, including seven laboratories: the Memory and Attention Development Lab, Developmental Psychopathology Lab, Clinical Psychology and Psychophysiology Lab, Experimental Psychology Lab, Neurocognitive Research Lab and the Center for Applied Neuroscience.

A second Erasmus partnership was established in November 2019 with the Italian university “La Sapienza”, one of the biggest European universities and the most ancient in Rome (founded in 1303). The university’s extensive research program is highly international and interdisciplinary. Along a broad established bachelor program, La Sapienza University also offers three master courses completely taught in English: cognitive neuroscience and psychological rehabilitation, applied psychology of health, work and juridical-forensic contexts and cognitive neuroscience. The city of Rome is not only a strong economic location but has a remarkable cultural and historic appeal. Our department of psychology is very proud that Rome has become our second Italian cooperation partner alongside Palermo.

In December 2019, UW/H entered an additional partnership with the University of Havana -the oldest Cuban university (founded in 1728) - for the departments of economics, psychology and psychotherapy. QS University Rankings Latin America assessed it in 2019 as one of the 20 best Latin American universities. Regardless of the difficult situation caused by the embargo of the USA, the University of Havana is regarded as one of the best 500 universities worldwide. The agreement includes student, teacher and research exchange as well as collective research initiatives. Prof. Ulrike Willutzki, who has been decisively involved in the partnership appointment, states, “the political situation in Cuba and the image of man connected with the Cuban revolution, its social integration and social space make this country especially appealing to students of economics and psychology at the University of Witten/Herdecke”.

Finally, at the end of 2019 a cooperative partnership was signed with the French Université de Nantes. In this case, our department was particularly interested to give students, who studied French at school, an opportunity to develop their language skills. The University of Nantes is another very strong partner in research, which unites different fields of work in the 2012 founded Laboratoire de Psychologie des Pays de la Loire (LPPL). Currently, the scientific activity runs in two directions, the cognitive and socio-cognitive foundations of action regulation theory and the behaviour in risk situations in the social context.

International cooperation are intended to become an important part of the Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy at the UW/H. Besides the four already mentioned partnerships, exchange programs exist with the University of Klagenfurt (Austria), Bern (Swiss), Palermo (Italy) and Yeditepe (Turkey). The head of department of psychology and psychotherapy are looking forward to welcome students and scientific staff from other European and non-European countries. Simultaneously, it encourages all students to inform themselves at the UW/H International Office at international-office@uni-wh.de about funding opportunities for stays abroad. The next application deadline ends in January 2021.