Global Competence for Academic Administration (GloCAA) certificate

The certification program in 2025 is only for members of the academic offices in the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences. The program starts with an opening event on 7 July 2025, from 10 am to noon. There, you will receive more information regarding how to earn the certificate. You can also begin to reflect on the challenges and opportunities posed by internationalization in your work area. 

In the upcoming years, the certification program will gradually be made available to the entire technical, administrative, and library staff of the University of Hamburg. If you are not working in the academic offices of the faculties named above but are still interested in earning the certificate, contact international-administration@uni-hamburg.de(int-administration"AT"uni-hamburg.de,).

Pillar 1—Language Skills: you attend English or German courses for a minimum of 15 hours (equivalent to 20 teaching hours of 45 minutes each). You can complete courses with the University of Hamburg Language Center, an Erasmus+ language trip, or a course from an external provider.

If you already have English language skills of C1 or higher, you can replace the English course with another English-language offer for 15 hours from pillars 2 or 3 and have that recognized towards your certificate.

If you are interested in German as a Foreign Language, contact fortbildung.uhh"AT"uni-hamburg.de.

Pillar 2—Transferable Skills: this will help you cultivate the skills and knowledge required to work in an international, diverse environment at the University of Hamburg as well as in cooperation with international partner institutions; to cultivate cultural awareness; and to reflect upon your own ways of thinking and acting in a global context.

For the basic version of this certification program, you attend workshops and receive training amounting to 12 hours; for the complete certification program, 16 hours.

We are offering workshops and trainings designed specifically for this certification program that you can find on our events page. You can also consult our overview (GloCAA filter “Key Skills”) to find a range of providers offering professional development and workshops that might have links to international topics. If you are not sure about whether a specific course can be recognized towards the certificate, contact international-administration"AT"uni-hamburg.de.

Pillar 3—International Exchange: share work experiences with the staff of international partner universities, reflect on challenges and current developments in higher education administration, exchange thoughts on best practices, and jointly develop solutions to the problems you are facing.

Possible formats include individual work shadowing, virtual tandem exchange, participation in staff exchanges with partner universities, staff training abroad, or international conferences and workshops in Hamburg. See our overview (GloCAA filter ”International Exchange”) for current offers. It is possible to go abroad in this program, but this is not required.

Participation in international exchange formats of at least 12 hours is required only if you wish to earn the complete certificate. We are happy to advise you on your search for the best format.

Basic version

To complete the basic version of GloCAA, submit proof of language courses and professional development within the scope of the pillars 1 and 2 to international-administration"AT"uni-hamburg.de. You will then receive overall confirmation that you took part in the program.

Complete certificate

To earn the complete GloCAA certificate, create a final report or learning portfolio of roughly five pages after you complete all three program pillars. In the report or portfolio, you should share your what you learned in your courses and training, as well as through exchange with international partners; how insights and ideas will affect your own daily work; how you can use them in your work; and how your work has been changed by completing the certificate.

If your international experiences and exchange have led to an idea for a subsequent project related to internationalization, we invite you to add a short project outline to your report or portfolio. We are happy to provide advice on funding.

Submit the learning portfolio along with proof you attended courses and training for all three program pillars to international-administration"AT"uni-hamburg.de. We will then issue the certificate.

As a rule, you should complete the program no later than 6 semesters after you were accepted to it.