Fit to work with the EU:
Universität Hohenheim takes on a Europe-wide mentoring role for Russia’s universities [02.12.07]
5 million euro budget - over 300 exchange scholarships for students, doctorates, post-doctoral students and university lecturers – Project Start September 2007
Europe is relying on the Universität Hohenheim to make Russia’s universities fit to collaborate with EU countries. In more concrete terms, the East European Centre at the Universität Hohenheim will act as a mentor, to bring the Russian education system up to EU standards. The EU will make available a total of 5 million euros for the project within the scope of the new EU mobility and transfer programme ERASMUS Mundus ''External Cooperation Window''. In addition to the budget set aside for Russia, the EU has also set aside 20 million euros for a further eight further country groups, in order to promote mobility between the EU and non-member states. The Universität Hohenheim is the only German university to receive a subsidy to cooperate with eleven universities within the Russian Federation in the Europe-wide competition for the new ERASMUS programme.Strong partners, a coherent concept and over 10 years of experience in the export of academic teaching to Central and Eastern Europe – this was the thrust of the Universität Hohenheim’s Eastern European Centre when competing for new funding. For the next three and a half years, the Universität Hohenheim will coordinate academic and scientific exchanges between Russian and European universities on behalf of the EU.
Within this time-frame, the Eastern European Centre will be able to fund over 300 scholarships for the two-way exchange of Bachelor degree and Masters students, doctoral students and post-doctoral students and professors through the EU. The programme includes scholarships for a period of between three months and three years. The core of the academic exchange programme is made up of Agricultural Science and associated disciplines and the Universität Hohenheim has been able to demonstrate particular expertise in the coordination of these in the past.
“As Germany’s leading Agricultural Science faculty, we have adopted the unique concept of lecturing and conducting research within Agricultural Science, combined with Food Technology and Nutritional Medicine, in order to highlight all the Life Sciences right along the food chain“, explains the Rector of the Universität Hohenheim, Prof. Dr. Hans-Peter Liebig.
Working closely with the Universität Hohenheim, it is hoped that the Russian universities make up for any shortfalls in terms of the structure and content of their courses and their interdisciplinary research methods and be introduced to the extensive exchange work going on within European universities. The agricultural and nutrition sector, which plays a significant role in Russia, the largest territorial state on the Earth, and a sector employing one third of the total workforce, will therefore assume a pioneering role within the entire Russian university system.
In running the project, the Universität Hohenheim will be able to call on a well-established network of excellent partners. “In relation to the exchange with Russia, we will also be calling on our links with the Euroleague of Life Sciences, in which Europe’s top universities work together in the fields of Life Sciences, Agricultural Economics and the Food Chain. We have also been able to gain the Moscow Lomonossov University and the University of Tübingen as partners, in order to be able to cover an even wider spectrum“, states Prof. Dr. Liebig.
Russia and Hohenheim
Russia and Hohenheim – the collaboration between East and West did not simply start in the 20th century but goes back to 1818 when the Universität Hohenheim was founded. At that time there was a community project between King Wilhelm I of Württemberg and his wife, the daughter of the Russian Tsar, Katharina Pawlowna, who was later to become Queen of Württemberg. At that time Württemberg was overcoming a famine, whereas today the Universität Hohenheim is involved in the reform of the Russian agricultural sector.
ERASMUS Mundus Mobility Programme ''External Cooperation Window''
The European Commission has set up a new scholarship programme for non-member countries, the so-called "Erasmus Mundus External Co-operation Window". Scholarships are intended to fund the transfer and exchange of students, graduates, post-graduates and doctoral students between universities and are also directed at university lecturers who are interested in teaching, further education and research work. The concept provides for the formation of mixed consortia, composed of universities within EU member and non-member states.
The Universität Hohenheim’s Eastern European Centre
The Eastern European Centre within the Universität Hohenheim is, according to the 2006 DAAD statistics, the undisputed German front-runner in the procurement of EU-financed university reform projects. The Eastern European Centre, as an cross-faculty institution, is the focus of the Universität Hohenheim’s academic and scientific knowledge and expertise in Natural Sciences, Agricultural Sciences, Economic and Social Sciences, in order to initiate specialist academic cooperation with partners in Central and East Europe and to coordinate cross-border interdisciplinary projects. The Eastern European Centre’s key objectives and work include the building of a network between the Universität Hohenheim and universities in Central, Southeast and Eastern Europe, the development of curricula, research collaboration projects and consultancy and further education.
Contact for press:
Dr.h.c. Jochem Gieraths, University of Hohenheim, Managing Director of the Eastern European Centre
Tel.: 0711 459-23572, e-mail: osteurop@uni-hohenheim.de