By 2018, it redefined its strategy by appointing a Commissioner for Global Digital Learning, who liaised with both the Commission for Teaching and Learning and the Commission for International Affairs and became an important link for developing global digital learning at H-BRS. The university began to revise its long-term internationalization strategy by giving a substantial focus on virtual mobility. By the time of the lockdown in 2020, H-BRS had already begun funding several digital projects with its partner universities and supported several virtual exchange projects. By the end of 2020, it resigned its internal calls for funding and initiated a university-wide campaign to foster digital internationalization within each department.
A new project was initiated “Digitale Internationalisierung der Fachbereiche” (DIF). DIF was launched to steer away from funding individual virtual projects by providing each department with one DIF coordinator. Now, H-BRS had a team of coordinators working together campus-wide on implementing its new strategy by providing each student with an international virtual experience (i.e. virtual or blended mobility) whilst studying at H-BRS. In 2022 the university has been awarded a grant "Virtual Mobility for All" to continue and expand the idea of DIF by the Stiftung für Innovation in der Hochschullehre. In this paper, we will also focus on what lies ahead and what we have learned from the past two years.