Dear all, I enjoyed the days in Helsinki and I especially was pleased by the liveliness and the the high level of the discussions. And I appreciated also very much the occasion to meet the other deleguates and to discuss one or the other problems during the breaks and the evening events. For me it was the first international meeting I joined with UWE and it made me sure, that we are a real international network!
I was very much interested to meet the other presidents. The discussions during our common lunch did concern many items, they reached from internal problems to general social and political items. For me in particular it was very helpful to talk with the Turkish and Northern Cypriote Colleagues, because there is a very high Turkish share among the immigrants to Austria. The second generation ist going to find their way to the Austrian Universities and we are facing more and more qualified women with islamic background. Within our Austrian Association we did not yet find a common position concerning women wearing the scarf as a religious symbol. Though these discussions were very helpful to learn about different points of views and to shape up my own mind, there was no concrete outcome of the meeting, except it did encourage me to join the next meeting in Instanbul. Ingrid NovotnyAustria
