UWC Renews Formal Collaboration with German University
The University of the Western Cape (UWC) and the Hochschule Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences (HNU) are extending their partnership which spans 11 years.
The research and scholarship agreement between the institutions, forged in September 2011, has seen several successful exchanges and the creation of new academic programmes.
HNU opened its doors in 1994 to serve the Neu-Ulm region in Germany. Since then, thousands of students have graduated from its three faculties – Health Management, Information Management and Business Economics. The university also has a well-established Centre for Postgraduate Studies.
Recently, UWC staff, including the deans of Economic Management Sciences and Natural Sciences, travelled to HNU. The visits after the COVID-19 pandemic-induced travel restrictions reaffirmed the need for in person interactions and the continued internationalisation of the universities. This week, a delegation from HNU was hosted at UWC to formally sign the renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
In his welcome address, UWC Rector, Professor Tyrone Pretorius highlighted the importance of partnership and gains made during the more than decade-long project.
“We have had many such successful exchanges and the students that returned and that shared their experiences with me talk very highly of what they have experienced and what they have learnt. We have developed new academic programmes in collaboration with HNU such as E-logistics, which was launched in 2018. We already have a new programme that was jointly developed and the master’s now in data analytics is intended to be a fully online offering. All of this is evidence of a very healthy partnership between our respective institutions,” said Prof Pretorius.
HNU President, Professor Dr Uta M. Feser, welcomed the renewal agreement and future collaborations with UWC.
“I know there are even more ideas for future activities on both sides, I hope so. So let us do what we do best together, exchange our thoughts and make things happen. In this I fully agree with Steve Jobs who said – great things in business are never done by one person; they are done by a team of people. Together we will develop successful projects in teaching, research and the transfer of knowledge and ideas and intensify our long term strategic partnership,’’ said Prof. Feser.
These continued collaborations include and will set motion to the following projects.
- Continued student and staff exchange through Erasmus Plus and other funded programmes;
- Improved South to North student exchange via summer and winter school participation;
- The development of joint degree programmes;
- Joint supervision of PhD students; and,
- The development of joint applied research projects.
