FH-Storys

Four international students from South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences have won the Global Business Students Competition 2024 at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven. Oindrila Rakshit, Ananyaa Kumar, Thi Ngoc Huyen Mai and Nhi Che won the online competition against more than 100 students from 19 universities in eleven countries.

How to improve employee retention

Connecticut State University is a partner of the South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences since 2023. This is the second time that a team from the Business Administration with Informatics programme has taken part in such a competition organised by a US partner university – and they’ve done it again! They’ve won. The task for this year's team was a human resources topic. Based on a real case, the students were asked to come up with ideas to improve employee retention and reduce phone use during working hours. “We had to come up with solutions to these problems that could be implemented in under US$10,000 and could be practical and realistic”, explains Ananyaa Kumar.

Worldwide networking

The teams had to work together to develop their approach to a solution and ultimately present it to real companies as clients. Due to the semester break, the team from Soest was spread across Germany, India and Vietnam, and therefore in different time zones. Despite this, the four students managed to work together to develop precise solutions for the task and convince the jury. “We did not get into the competition with the aim of 'Oh my God, we have to win',” says Oindrila Rakshit. “But it was with the mindset: it’s something new, let's try it and have fun.” However, it is important to her, to always do her best, no matter how big or small the task is. “And that's what we did – we gave our best”.

Entirely voluntary participation

Participation in the competition is not a course requirement for the students, as it is entirely voluntary. “When we received the applications from these four students, we immediately thought, this is our dream team, they're going to make it,” says Prof Dr Henrik Janzen. “These four really are some of the best students we have.” Together with research assistant Oleksandr Prokhorov, he motivated and supervised the team. Both consider the competition as an ideal addition to the programme. “This is of course an excellent opportunity to gain international experience in an easy way,” says Prof Janzen.

To be continued

All the more reason to continue and expand cooperation with the partner university. During a visit to New Haven, Prof Janzen and Dean Prof Dr Dina Dreisbach developed a roadmap for cooperation with Connecticut State University. Following the successful participation in virtual events, the next step is to organise summer schools in New Haven and Soest, which will be attended by students from the respective partner university. A joint dual degree programme is also being planned.