Information about the International Club
The International Club for the University of Bayreuth, established in 1976, is a registered non-profit organisation.
It stands as one of the university’s oldest entities, playing a crucial role in the university’s social life.
As a recognized and respected support organisation, it works closely together with the university administration.
Objectives and Responsibilities
- Facilitating intercultural understanding by organising cultural activities for university members
- Supporting the internationalisation strategy of the University of Bayreuth by working together closely with the Vice President for Internationalization, Gender Equality & Diversity
- Organising social events to integrate the university’s international guests, members and their families in the university life as well as the city of Bayreuth
- Assisting international guests and their families through close cooperation with the university – especially with the International Office and its Welcome Services – to settle down in Bayreuth
- Supporting the university’s efforts in creating an even more family-friendly environment by offering activities to bring together international (and German) families
- Financial support for international students as part of the Germany Scholarship (Deutschlandstipendium) programme at the University of Bayreuth
- Annual awarding of the IC Prize for outstanding academic work to socially committed international academics at the University of Bayreuth
The International Club Now and Then
The International Club for the University of Bayreuth (IC) was founded in the American tradition by its first President Claudia Hoffmann and a close circle of highly committed women in 1976, one year after the foundation of the university itself. Since its beginning, all members of the club have been women, who are particularly closely connected to the university. Today, the IC counts almost 200 members.
The founding principle of the IC at this time was to facilitate the integration of the wives and families of the international guests and professors of the university into the city of Bayreuth. Activities especially for this target group had been created like regular breakfasts with members of the IC and international families, mainly mothers and their children.
Nowadays, circumstances have changed and through other support structures, many of the international children go to (pre-)kindergarten. The international professors coming to Bayreuth are not predominantly male anymore but the number of female international professors and university staff is increasing. Therefore, the offers of the IC are not exactly the same as almost fifty years ago anymore, although traditional events like the Welcome Parties will also remain in the future.
International guests and university members newly arriving in Bayreuth undoubtedly still need special support, which the IC is always willing to give, but by working hand in hand with the International Office of the University of Bayreuth and its Welcome Services, the inquiries that reach us have been decreasing. The focus of the IC today is to facilitate social and cultural exchange between the international guests and members of the university – especially (post)graduate students, postdocs, junior and senior scholars, researchers, professors, guest lecturers, fellows and staff members – and the people of Bayreuth. (Under)graduate students are not excluded and everyone is warmly welcome to attend our activities but we believe that students already benefit from a lot of different offers particularly crated for them (e.g. student associations (Fachschaften) and the Erasmus Student Network) on campus and the more advanced scholars are sometimes left behind.
from left to right: Irmi Dorau, Sonali Trauner, Lifang Huang and Mirjam Straßer (Claudia Gebauer is missing)
Board of Directors (2023-2025)
- Mirjam Straßer, President
- Lifang Huang, President
- Sonali Trauner, President
- Irmingard Dorau, Treasurer
- Dr. Claudia Gebauer, Secretary