On 15 January 2025, the Unite! Online Language Café is another online programme that gives students at TU Darmstadt and all other Unite! partner institutions the opportunity to practice and enhance their language skills in the Unite! languages.

The Unite! Online Language Café takes place every two weeks on Wednesdays during term time. It is supervised by student language tutors from the partner universities which successfully applied for the seed fund project in 2024.

In 2024, TU Darmstadt’s Language Resource Centre organised the European Day of Languages at TU Darmstadt for the first time.

Celebrating linguistic and cultural diversity in Europe and beyond is an integral part of the Council of Europe’s language policy.

All members and associates of TU Darmstadt and their families were invited, and more than 200 people dropped in throughout the day.

The cooperation with Unite! combined with the X. Unite! Dialogue at TU Darmstadt contributed to the event’s success in 2024.

With increasing internationalisation, the number of new degree programmes taught in English is rising.

For many international students, English facilitates access to studying in Germany. However, communicating in the lingua franca poses a linguistic challenge for students and lecturers alike, which requires consistent planning and support.

PALS conducted a comprehensive survey to identify the linguistic and academic needs of international students enrolled on degree programmes offered in English. The results of this survey were incorporated into a support programme focusing on specialist languages. The programme was piloted for the first time in the winter semester of 2024/25.

An important goal of the Languages Policy is to improve the (pluri-)lingual competencies of members of TU Darmstadt. To improve usability and clarity, the wide range of services offered by the SPZ has been summarised in a new overview.

Since 2015, the SchreibCenter has been fostering plurilingualism among those seeking advice in a constructive manner through its individual consultations. Writing advice is currently available in more than five different languages. It can also be provided in a mixture of languages. Since 2023, the SchreibCenter has also been offering a certified short training on “Mehrsprachiges akademisches Schreiben begleiten” (Supporting multilingual academic writing).

Functional multilingualism can be particularly successful if the communication partners are aware of their plurilingualism. It can also make communication easier and less stressful when giving or receiving advice. This gives people seeking advice the opportunity to use a language they feel more comfortable with. The Department of Linguistics – Multilingualism has encouraged its employees to include their communication languages on their door signs.

At SPZ events, employees increasingly wear multilingual name tags. They clearly indicate the languages in which the employees can be addressed.

ZediS was launched in autumn 2022 as one of the first centres for digital language learning in the German-speaking world. It is a point of contact for teachers, learners and anyone interested in digital language learning.