AAA—Akademisches auslandamt, commonly known as "Foreign Affairs Office" for China students. This institution is an important part of the success of applying for a university. However, for many applicants, how such an institution works is still a mystery, so that some people have fears or other types of misunderstandings about such an institution. In order to make this "black box" transparent, the author interviewed the staff of Weimar Bauhaus University in Thuringia, Germany, who is mainly responsible for the application of international students. As part of a series of interviews with abcdv in the Foreign Affairs Office of German universities.
Background materials:
The history of Weimar Bauhaus University can be traced back to 1860. It is an art school founded by Duke Karl Alexander. After 19 19, a group of artists and architects led by architect walter gropius took over. In the name of Bauhaus, it became the battlefield and spiritual base of avant-garde artists who started a new era, rebelled against tradition and popularized modern art design concepts. Because of the war and the Nazis, the school changed hands again. Even W. Gropius, who won the Iron Cross in World War I, was defined by the Nazis as "the elegant Sharon Bolshevik" and fled to the United States because of the harassment of Nazi brown shirts. Then, this school, which had declined for decades and changed its name several times, was renamed Bauhaus on 1995-96 after the reunification of Germany, and became an academic institution with the nature of a public comprehensive university.
At present, Bauhaus University has four schools: School of Architecture, School of Architecture and Engineering, and School of Media, which constitute the School of Design. Among them, Media College is divided into three majors: media culture, media composition (design) and media system. The majors that make up the School of Design are visual communication, free art and product design. Almost all majors only enroll students in the winter semester.
When the author walked into the office of Ms. Zsuzsanna Walz, the staff member in charge of foreign students' application in the Foreign Affairs Office, it was close to the end of work. For fear of affecting her work, Ms. Walz specially set the interview appointment time at this time. The corridor was empty and long snakes were waiting in line. However, the work in the office is not over yet, and there are two small piles of application materials on the table, waiting for the owner of the office to collect them.
"China students are no longer the students with the largest number of applicants here."
When the author mentioned the possible proportion of China students among foreign applicants, Waltz interrupted the topic with a mysterious smile. "China students are no longer the students with the largest number of applicants here. Your news is out of date. " In response to the author's query, Ms. Walz went on to explain that perhaps due to the summer semester, the application materials from Morocco currently account for her proportion, but the quality is far lower than that of the applicants from China. Most people send materials to Germany to try their luck because their grades can't meet the standards for entering colleges and universities in their own countries, and many of them are filled in professionally. Almost all the applications she received were rejected. Elsewhere in the school, applications from Morocco are not very popular. Individual schools have also begun to set up special staff to handle applications from Moroccan students. She is still very satisfied with the students in China. When the author asked DAAD if he was interested in establishing APS in Morocco, Ms. Walz smiled. "Maybe not yet."
"I think the audit department is very good and the efficiency has improved."
Regarding APS, Ms. Walz directly replied, "I think the audit department is very good and has improved efficiency." But at the same time, they laughed and said that the audit department was originally set up to prevent the forgery of materials, but unexpectedly, their certificates were also forged, and they were very confused. Speaking of the forged APS certificate seen at the Bonn conference, Ms. Waltz gasped again and again. "It's amazing that even the watermark eagle emblem can be copied." Faced with this situation, the audit department began to replace APS certification paper from this year 1 month and added fluorescent fiber yarn for anti-counterfeiting. Now every foreign office has added purple light identification AP. In the office, Ms. Waltz also took out several new APS certificates on the spot and showed the fluorescent anti-counterfeiting logo to reporters under the purple light. At the same time, Ms. Walz also advised other applicants not to rush to the hospital. If they do false certificates, false materials will be found out, and the result will only delay themselves.
"Domestic universities, the information on my side is absolutely detailed!"
Regarding the sensitive issue of college students at present, Ms. Walz's attitude is basically the same as that of most other foreign affairs offices in colleges and universities, that is, applicants who graduate from three-year colleges are generally only given to Zulassung in the preparatory course. Regarding the reasons, Ms. Walz explained that at first, the general way to deal with such applicants was to return their applications and suggest them to apply for FH. But then FH complained that the knowledge of these students was generally too serious, and some basic subjects could not meet the requirements, so they needed to make up classes. Therefore, there is absolutely no academic discrimination in the treatment of Zulassung, a college graduate preparatory course. Instead, we should try our best to help such students and make them more confident to finish their studies. For undergraduates, if the majors are not restricted, generally speaking, applicants with APS can successfully obtain the study places they want. For applicants with professional restrictions, the order of waiting for study places must be sorted according to whether they are related majors, whether they are key universities, and their test scores in their own universities. "For domestic universities, the information on my side is absolutely detailed! Not knowing enough about China students will delay the application. Of course, it will not be fooled by fake materials. " At some point, Ms. Walz opened a website called http://www.anabin.de. The author randomly selected two schools to check it out and found that the information was really complete.
"We strive to help every qualified foreign student realize their dream of further study in Germany."
Ms. Walz denied rumors that German universities have raised the admission threshold and asked China students to apply for more and more strict conditions. "We will never deliberately make things difficult for any qualified foreign applicants, including China students. On the contrary, we very much hope to send them Zulasong. " For each application, Ms. Walz usually gives a reply within a week or two, whether it is rejected or accepted. "I try not to delay the reply. I know that time is very precious to applicants. " Regarding the popular inquiry stationery sent by e-mail, Ms. Walz said that she would take it as seriously as mailing stationery. It's just that she hopes that the applicant's questions in the consultation can be more specific and try to avoid those that can be found on the school website (such as what major can I study here? ), or questions that she can't answer (such as whether I can get Zulassung). Because of the time, such questions are usually not answered. When the application is rejected, the applicant's materials will be returned as soon as possible, so that the applicant has the opportunity to continue to submit applications to other schools. It's just that manual work is inevitable. While apologizing for possible or past mistakes, she hopes that applicants can contact the Foreign Affairs Office as soon as possible when there are problems, so as to minimize the losses. "In short," Waltz added, "we try our best to help every qualified foreign student realize their dream of further study in Germany."
"DaF will not replace DSH for some time, and the two will coexist without conflict."
When the author mentioned the rumor that DAAD replaced the foreign affairs office of the school to handle the materials of foreign applicants. Ms. Walz explained that there was such a proposal in the meeting, but only the former ZVS (Learning Location Distribution Center) was allowed to accept applications from foreign students first, and then sorted out and distributed to universities. However, it is unlikely to be adopted and implemented because it will not bring substantial improvement to work efficiency. Moreover, because the foreign affairs offices of universities have their own office habits and freedom, there will be no database of international students with the nature of all-German networking. As for the rumor that DaF will replace DSH, Waltz explicitly denied it. "DaF will not replace DSH for some time, and the two will coexist without conflict."
"China students are very diligent and we welcome them."
During the whole interview, Ms. Walz also talked about some unpleasant experiences of her study agency in China. She still understands those students who cheat, but at the same time stresses once again that sympathy and principles are not in conflict, and she will never hesitate and be soft when rejecting such applicants' materials. But when the author mentioned whether it would prejudice other applicants from China, Waltz smiled and shook his head. "Of course not. Through most registered China students, we can see that China students are very diligent and we welcome them. "
When the author left the Foreign Affairs Office, it was already the sunset hanging in the west and the dark clouds covered the sky. Winter is almost over, and the new semester is about to begin. Many students are about to set foot on this strange land of Germany with their dreams, and continue to describe this dream-woven sky with laughter and tears. Here, the author, who is also an international student in Germany, wishes friends who are going to Germany a happy study life and their dreams come true.