Evaluation “There is No Unanimous Judgement on ifu”

Abstract

ifu was not only a German-style postgraduate programme, but also a combination of international academic conference and world women’s conference - a comparison used by some lecturers during ifu. The analogy to an international academic conference was based on the numerous presentations, presenters, the introductory lectures and workshops. The character of a world women’s conference was reflected more in the many informal discussions during which academic topics were debated and expanded on, as well as in the networking activities. Nevertheless, it is true that ifu was conceived as a postgraduate programme. The women junior scientists had to conduct research, study and submit results - not an easy task given the tight schedule, ifu was a global community of educated women working in the context of a global communication project. This was bound to cause a lot of conflict and problems, but it also produced a high level of identification with ifu’s concept and objectives on the part of most participants.