A Warm Welcome in Viseu: Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg Students Join the 4th ProGlobe Summer School in Portugal

The visit followed the students’ participation in ProGlobe, an international virtual exchange project that connects students and lecturers at partner institutions in Canada, Germany, Portugal, and China. The week in Viseu offered an intensive and inspiring programme combining academic exchange, intercultural learning, company visits, regional innovation, and student collaboration.

One highlight was the close cooperation with Portuguese tourism students. H-BRS students joined classes at IPV and served as an international feedback panel for the project “Designing a Souvenir of Viseu.” They contributed intercultural perspectives, asked constructive questions, and provided feedback on souvenir concepts designed with German visitors in mind.

A central strength of the ProGlobe format is its blended approach: students first collaborate online before meeting in person. This makes the mobility week especially meaningful, as participants arrive already connected, motivated, and ready to engage in deeper intercultural and academic exchange.

According to Regina Brautlacht, one of the key outcomes of this year’s visit is H-BRS’s invitation to participate in a Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) approved by IPV. This development creates new opportunities for continued collaboration, student mobility, and joint international learning formats between the partner institutions.

ProGlobe is an initiative of the Consortium of Virtual Exchange (CoVE), whose mission is to promote international collaboration among its member institutions through virtual exchange, intercultural learning, research, and innovative blended mobility formats. CoVE also explores the role of AI in virtual exchange, organises symposia, and contributes to scholarly research in the field, with members regularly publishing on virtual exchange and international digital collaboration. ProGlobe has also been recognised with the European Language Label (ELL), an EU award that highlights innovative and creative approaches to language teaching and learning across Europe. CoVE members include Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu in Portugal, Fanshawe College in Canada, Shenzhen Technology University in China, the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, and Moi University in Kenya. Regina Brautlacht, a founding member of CoVE, currently serves as Executive Director for the consortium’s two-year term.

A sincere thank you goes to Prof. Lurdes Martins and Prof. Paula Fonseca for their outstanding itinerary, warm hospitality, and passionate commitment to international academic exchange. Their engagement made the week in Viseu both academically valuable and personally memorable for our students.

The Language Centre at Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg continues to be a strategic driver of international learning and capacity building, from summer schools in Africa, China, and Europe to virtual exchange, intercultural classroom formats, and expert contributions in Germany and abroad.