In Pretoria: Prof. Saler (HsKA), Prof. Schaab (HsKA), Fritz van der Merwe (UP) (front, from L to R) Professor Coetzee (UP), Professor Sumner (UP), Victoria Rautenbach (UP) (back, from L to R) (Photo: Martie Meyer/UP)
2 November 2015
Success for Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences
As part of its framework Baden-Württemberg-STIPENDIUM for University Students – BWS plus, the Baden-Württemberg Foundation is supporting the project “Geomatics and Participation – Study and Research in the Tension Field between a European Technology Region and an African Emerging Country” with the University of Pretoria
At the start of the project, which the Baden-Württemberg Foundation is funding with EUR 125,000 over a period of three years, project manager Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gertrud Schaab and her colleague Prof. Dr.-Ing. Heinz Saler travelled to the kick-off meeting in Pretoria. In a results-oriented and warm atmosphere, an exchange of ideas about all aspects of the project took place and Professor Schaab presented the new cooperation with Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences to students, lecturers, and administrative personnel of the University of Pretoria (UP), which is among the top 10 African universities. Discussions about the feasibility of a student exchange supported by stipends were very promising, both with respect to the recognition of courses in which students enroll at the partner university and to the possibilities for practical semesters and research stays at companies and governmental agencies cooperating with UP. Particularly impressive was the visit to the informal settlement “Alaska” in Mamelodi, east of Pretoria. “Alaska” will be the topic and object of examination of the second summer school planned at UP, which is planned to take place in July 2017.
The intensive cooperation on a joint project typical for the partner country is meant to provide the necessary initial momentum for a long-term cooperation and lively exchange between the two universities. The universities want to benefit from each other's experiences with and knowledge about real-time geomatics. Geomatics is a rapidly-developing field with constantly new technologies and possibilities in administration, business, and science, and there is a need for geo(infor)matics specialists both in Germany and in South Africa. By involving students, assistants and professors, knowledge on the partner countries and partner universities will be broadly anchored and distributed; this should contribute to the sustainability of the cooperation. At the kick-off meeting in Pretoria, the foundation was laid accordingly: the discussion about the cooperation agreement was concluded and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) drafted. In order to achieve a long-term partnership, both universities want to establish their student exchange according to the principle of mutuality and meet the system differences between the two universities with the necessary flexibility. “With the new cooperation, Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences has closed a crucial gap in its network of international partner universities,” sums up project manager Gertrud Schaab, “because our students who want to study on the African continent, are especially interested in South Africa. Therefore, we are finally able to realize a regular exchange that unfortunately did not arise from our other Africa cooperations so far.” For many years, South Africa has been popular among the students of the IMM faculty as a country for an internship semester. Last but not least, such experiences also serve to diminish biased opinions about living and working in Africa. And vice-versa, study visits and the summer school in July 2016 at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences allow students from South Africa to get to know Baden-Württemberg as an excellent research and study location with much know-how and great living conditions.
For more information about newly-supported projects, see the press release of the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung.
The Baden-Württemberg-STIPENDIUM is a program aimed at encouraging an international exchange of qualified students, young professionals, and high school students. Sincd 2001, over 19,000 young people from Baden-Württemberg have been able to gain experience abroad while young foreigners had the opportunity to spend some time in Baden-Württemberg. During the current scholarship year 2015/16, another 1,000 young people will receive a scholarship funded by Baden-Württemberg STIPENDIUM.
With the BWS plus program, the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung supports innovative cooperations of higher education institutions with international institutions. The program, endowed with a yearly 800,000 Euro, was set up in 2011 and now enables more than 40 BWS plus projects of Baden-Württemberg universities and universities of applied sciences.
For further information, please visit www.bw-stipendium.de
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