Events

Five students and Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner are participating in National Model United Nations

More than a year of preparation and organization lie behind a five Fulda students and Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner who are now in the final stage of getting ready for National Model United Nations (NMUN). From 24 to 28 March 2024 they will be discussing, negotiating, and networking in New York together with thousands of students from all around the world. NMUN New York is the “world's largest, most prestigious, most diverse, and oldest ongoing university-level Model UN” (NMUN 2024). And for the first time, a delegation from Fulda University of Applied Sciences is part of the huge and well-known conference. “ It is a major success for us to have been accepted at NMUN with a delegation”, says Prof. Claudia Wiesner. “We are all happy and excited to be attending the NMUN prime event!”

NMUN is formally associated with the United Nations (UN) Department of Global Communications. This means that the conference in New York culminates at the UN Headquarters and provides a unique opportunity for all attendees. They will get to know students from various countries, be able to practice English, hold speeches in front of a big committee, stand in for their countries position and train their soft skills for their future work life.

The students will be representing Sao Tome and Principe in four committees individually or with a partner. In the General Assembly First Committee (GA1) they will discuss the two topics “Relationship between Disarmament and Development” and “The Role of Science and Technology in International Security and Disarmament”.

For the second time the UN simulation "Model United Nations" (MUN) took place at the department of Social and Cultural Sciences from July 17 to 20. This year 39 students and five teachers from the partner universities Madrid, Edmonton, Lwiw and Zagreb participated, among them two students as a film team. On the part of the department of Social and Cultural Sciences, seven students from the Master ICEUS and seven students from the Master MAHRS participated. MUN has been held at the department since 2019. This year, under the leadership of Prof. Claudia Wiesner, a delegation from Fulda already participated in the MUN conference in Erfurt in January. Since winter 2022/2023, the preparatory seminars for MUN are integrated into the curriculum in MAHRS and ICEUS.

The Fulda MUN 2023 was conducted under the direction of Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner and Prof. Dr. Philip Liste as well as Muriel C. Pluschke and Clara Umstätter and with the support of a team consisting of Zhylien Kaja, Vivian Seidel, Vanessa Wintermantel and Pauline Woods (all from the department of Social and Cultural Sciences). It took place within the framework of the projects PATRAPO (Practicing Transnational Politics), Transnational Governance and Human Rights (HAW International), Brückenprogramm Hessen-Ukraine, supported by the Point Alpha Research Institute (PARI). Project partners are the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain, the University of Zagreb, Croatia, and MacEwan University, Edmonton, Canada. In addition, a student delegation from Catholic University Lwiw, Ukraine, led by Prof. Dr. Galyna Protsyk, took part (with the longest journey of over 26 hours by bus).

Three students from Canada as well as the visiting professor at the faculty of Social and Cultural Sciences, Prof. Dr. Chaldeans Mensah, led the participants as chairmen (Dais) through the conference and its proceedings. Beforehand, the students had prepared intensively for the conference for two semesters within the framework of a hybrid, seminar. Students from Fulda, Lwiw, Madrid and Zagreb participated in the online seminar sessions, which were led by teachers from Fulda, Madrid and Zagreb.

The Fulda MUN 2023 was the highlight of the seminar for everyone and provided an opportunity to finally simulate a UN conference together in presence.

June 12- 16, 2023

Last week, students from the ICEUS and MAHRS masters program visited Brussels to gain more insight on the functions of various EU institutions. Their excursion began with a guided city tour, led by Stefan Debrabandere, through famous quarters and spots through out the city. Their tour ended on a sweet note right in front of one of the most famous chocolatiers in all of Brussels, Neuhaus.

The first institution the MAHRS and ICEUS students visited during their visit in Brussels was the Council of the European Union. ICEUS alumni Ignacio Nuno Molina shared information on the role of the European Council and the Council of the European Union within the European institutions. Ignacio also shared some of his personal work in the communications sector with the students.

Under the direction of Zhylien Kaja the Fulda Centre of Transnational Governance organized a European HomeParliament at Fulda University of Applied Sciences on May 16, 2023.

At this year's European Home Parliament, students from the Social Law Department at Fulda University of Applied Sciences, had lively discussions about the importance of citizen participation in strengthening democracy in the European Union (EU). They all agreed that low turnout in European elections is a concern for both the EU and citizens. Citizens have the right to complain about issues they care about, but it is important that they also exercise their right to vote in order to bring about the change they desire.

Sub-questions that were also discussed with students included:

• Should a European referendum be introduced in which all EU citizens can participate and thus have their say on issues concerning the future of Europe?
• Should EU citizens also be able to vote for candidates from other EU Member States in European elections via transnational lists?

For one weekend, four students slipped into the role of delegates of the United Nations

Long, complicated negotiations and short, concise speeches were experienced by four Master's students from the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences from 20-22 January 2023 at the Erfurt Model United Nations (EfMUN). The three-day conference not only gave them an insight into the diplomatic workings of the United Nations but also allowed them to become active themselves. As delegates from New Zealand, United Kingdom, Hungary and Croatia, they worked together in two committees with over 100 other Bachelor's and Master's students from all over Germany. In the General Assembly, they dealt with the dangers of nuclear weapons and the trade of small arms and illicit weapons, while the connections between climate change and health were discussed in the United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA). In the Security Council, Afghanistan and peacekeeping missions were on the agenda. In her keynote speech at the closing ceremony of EfMUN, Marleen Schreier, who herself has been active at the international level for NMUN for more than ten years, directly related exactly these topics to her own everyday life and encouraged the students to face the different challenges on their own career paths. Social events such as a sightseeing tour through Erfurt, a joint lunch and a delegate dance framed the event which took place in Erfurt's town hall.

“It has been a very enriching experience to learn and collaborate with other fellow students on global issues”, said Nelly Corrales, who represented Hungary at UNEA. There, at the end of a long, busy weekend and after some amendments, three resolutions were adopted.

The European Home Parliaments give citizens the opportunity to engage in discussions about current European topics in an interactive way. For our students this is a great chance to apply the knowledge they have gained about the European Union and thus we participated again in the 7th round of the European Home Parliament.

What are the Home Parliaments?

European Home Parliaments are an initiative of the NGO “Pulse of Europe”, an independent citizens’ initiative founded in Frankfurt am Main in 2016).

The aim of the home parliaments is to bring European debates to citizens’ homes and discuss current European topics in small groups. This can work among family members, friends or in our case students. Usually, three questions of European matter are discussed and then voted upon (just like in a real parliament).

This year’s topics:

The overall question of this years’ round was: Europe on the next level: Do we need a deeper cultural and political integration?

This included three further proposals and questions:

• European Public Holiday: Should there be a joint European Public Holiday to commemorate Europe’s shared history and values?

Finally in Brussels! After 2 months of prepatory seminar sessions (and several cancellations due to the covid-19-pandemic over the last few years), 30 master students of Intercultural Communication and European Studies accompanied by Maria Keller had the chance to visit Brussels and visit the European institutions in Belgium’s capital.

On the program: European Commission, European Parliament, Representation of the Federal State of Hesse (Hessische Landesvertretung) and the Council of the European Union. Within the institutions, we discussed topics like migration, external actions, climate as well as the tasks of the institutions, the everyday-life within and career and internship perspectives.

For the second time, students of Fulda University of Applied Sciences participated in the European HomeParliaments - this time live on campus. Maria Keller and Zhylien Kaja organized the event and five students acted as moderators for the discussion groups.

European HomeParliaments are an initiative of the NGO “Pulse of Europe”, an independent citizens’ initiative founded in Frankfurt am Main in 2016. “Pulse of Europe” aims at making the idea of European Citizenship visible and audible, and at strengthening the links between EU-politicians and ordinary citizens. A Home Parliament is a private discussion group of 4 to 8 people with the slogan ‘‘Have a say in the big issues!‘‘. It is moderated by a host, who can either invite their friends or have themselves assigned to an interesting discussion group. It all takes place either online via Video-HomeParliament, WebEx, Zoom etc. or in a face-to-face meeting.

This years' questions included

• Should the principle of unanimity in the council of the European Union be abolished and replaced by a qualified majority? (Soll das Einstimmigkeitsprinzip im Rat der Europäischen Union abgeschafft und durch eine qualifizierte Mehrheit ersetzt werden?)

January 2022 four master students of the department of social and cultural studies (M.A. Intercultural Communication and European Studies; M.A. Human Rights Studies in Politics, Law and Society) participated in GLOBALMEU. The international conference with participants from the US and different countries in Europe was a simulation of council meetings of the European Union. Students from Fulda acted as ministers of environment, foreign affairs and finance and represented the countries Cyprus and Poland. Through this simulation students learned a lot about the processes of the European Union, international discussions and the difficulties of finding consens and compromises.

Verena, M.A. student (IECUES) describes her experiences (German):

"Eine Simulation der Europäischen Union? Als mich eine E-Mail erreichte mit Werbung für diese Veranstaltung war ich zunächst skeptisch. Doch meine Freude am Theater und das Verlangen nach praktischen Erfahrungen waren dann so groß, dass ich neugierig auf diese Simulation wurde. In den letzten drei Semestern habe ich in meinem Studiengang ICEUS sehr viel über die Europäische Union gelernt. Mir ist aber auch bewusst geworden, dass ich die Tiefe und die Komplexität der EU trotz Studium nicht gänzlich begreifen werde. Eine Simulation schien jedoch genau die richtige Erfahrung zu sein, um die Theorie in die Praxis umzusetzen. Learning by Doing, wie es so schön heißt.

On Monday, 20th of September 2021, everyone interested was welcome to hear more about the positions of the Fulda constituency candidates for the German federal election on September 26th. The discussion took place on site campus of Fulda University of Applied Sciences and was broadcasted via live stream. Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner moderated the discussion which was organised by Maria Keller and Stefan Rascher. On the podium, Nuha Sharif-Ali (Left), Gianina Zimmermann (Greens), Mario Klotzsche (who replaced Jürgen Lenders, FDP), Birgit Kömpel (SPD), Dagmar Heil (VOLT) and Michael Brand (CDU) debated numerous topics ranging from human rights and foreign policy to digitalisation and housing shortages.

University President Prof. Dr. Karim Khakzar welcomed about 50 guests that were present on campus and about 120 viewers who followed the event via the live stream, giving a short speech. He called for better framework conditions and higher funding for universities of applied sciences from both the federal states as well as the federal government. Then the floor was opened for the discussion among the constituency candidates. They presented their positions in several blocks of questions. The subjects covered included: Fulda and the region, social affairs and business, human rights, democracy, education and research. The panellists had a good two hours to express their views on each topic in short statements and to explain their own ideas and solutions. Before the event, everyone interested had been invited to submit questions – which were then included into the discussion – via an online tool and social media. In addition, the audience had the possibility to ask further questions.

One guest asked which actions the panellists were planning against the increasing radicalisation in society and the social division between urban and rural areas. All panellists agreed on democracy and social cohesion to begin with individuals and their attitudes. In addition, numerous initiatives in the city and region of Fulda aim at strengthening democracy. The question of raising the German minimum wage was a topic that was controversely discussed.

Under the direction of Prof. Dr Claudia Wiesner and Zhylien Kaja the Centre of Transnational Governance organized a European HomeParliament at Fulda University of Applied Sciences on June 22, 2021.

European HomeParliaments are an initiative of the NGO “Pulse of Europe”, an independent citizens’ initiative founded in Frankfurt am Main in 2016. “Pulse of Europe” aims at making the idea of European Citizenship visible and audible, and at strengthening the links between EU-politicians and ordinary citizens.

A Home Parliament is a private discussion group of 4 to 8 people with the slogan ‘‘Have a say in the big issues!‘‘. It is moderated by a host, who can either invite his/her friends or have him/herself assigned to an interesting discussion group. It all takes place either online via Video-HomeParliament, WebEx, Zoom etc. or in a face-to-face meeting.

The European HomeParliament at Fulda University of Applied Sciences offered students the opportunity to discuss the following question: ‘‘Soll die EU in zukünftigen pandemischen Krisen entschiedener europäische Interessen vertreten? / Should the EU represent European interests more decisively in future pandemic crises?‘‘ in a setting that incorporates parliamentary time frames and rules.