Global Partners: Sac State Welcomes Students from Germany’s AKAD University
In partnership with Sac State since 2014, AKAD University recently concluded their three-week on-campus visit. During that time, exchange students from all disciplines attended two seminars, Intercultural Competence and Global Leadership and Project Management. The program offers AKAD students the opportunity to make a shift from their usual distance learning to having an international experience, which includes learning about Sacramento and our local culture.
“I think the main point of traveling is getting to know another culture, getting really deep into it and thinking about the why,” says AKAD University student Niklas Steffan. “To learn why they’re doing something different from our culture and to learn about the intercultural aspects.”
Typically, a group of 20 to 30 students visit the Sac State campus through this unique program each year. Participants are eligible to receive a certificate from Sac State and from AKAD University upon successfully completing each course. The three-week visit culminates with a small graduation ceremony held at Sac State’s College of Continuing Education (CCE).
“This program offers our students an invaluable opportunity to immerse themselves in a completely different cultural and academic environment,” says Prof. Dr. Sonja Güthoff, Professor for Health Care and Medical Leadership and Dean of the School Health and Social Sciences at AKAD University. “For many of them, this is the first time they’ve experienced learning on a physical campus because AKAD University is a distance-learning university. Furthermore, they gain practical project management skills, and especially they develop a deeper intercultural understanding that will serve them well in their future careers.”
Offering more than 100 distance learning courses in the areas of digitalization and innovation, business and management, technology and IT, communication and culture, and health and social affairs, AKAD University is located in the city of Stuttgart. All courses are accredited and state-recognized and lead to a Bachelor’s, Master’s, or MBA. Since opening its doors, they’ve graduated more than 71,000 students over the last 60 years.
“Sacramento State is the perfect partner for us because of its outstanding reputation as a state university and the diversity of its academic offerings,” says Dr. Güthoff. “The campus is impressive in both size and resources, and we’ve found the faculty and staff across various departments to be incredibly welcoming. They share our vision of providing students with practical, globally relevant skills, which makes this collaboration highly valuable.”
“This actually changed my life,” says Niklas Steffan. “I will travel a lot more now because I’m now prepared with the tools our professor gave us to match the needs and the different cultures in the world.”