Federal President meets representatives of the CDHAW

In March, Federal President Joachim Gauck traveled to the People’s Republic of China on a state visit at the invitation of President Xi Jinping. The visit focused on issues related to the further development of bilateral relations. Federal President Gauck visited Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi’an and held political talks with President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang, and other high-ranking representatives of the state and government.

In Shanghai, he visited Tongji University and held talks with representatives of the Sino-German University of Applied Sciences (CDHAW). The CDHAW is an institution within Tongji University. The 26 German partner universities of the German University Consortium for International Cooperation—which has included Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences since the CDHAW’s founding—participate both academically and through student exchanges as part of a dual-degree program. The CDHAW has a predominantly engineering-oriented focus, with a special emphasis on interdisciplinarity and the teaching of basic economic principles. Four Bachelor’s degree programs are currently offered with the option of a dual degree: mechatronics, Building Services Engineering, Automotive Engineering and Service, and Industrial Engineering. Since January 2016, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Frank Worlitz, Director of our Institute for Process Engineering, Process Automation, and Measurement Technology (IPM), has served as the mechatronics program coordinator for China within the German university consortium.

During a guided tour of the Tongji University campus, the Federal President learned a great deal about the university’s history, which he also addressed in his subsequent speech. “[…] I would like to begin by paying tribute to those who have embraced a German heritage. For the roots of Tongji University—and I’m not telling you anything new here—are German. They lie in the German Medical School. It was a doctor, Erich Paulun, who founded the school and built it up together with Chinese partners. Soon expanded to include engineering programs, it contributed to the development of Chinese science and education. This history plays an important role in enabling us to say today that Tongji University is an outstanding center of academic exchange between our countries.”

In his speech, he singled out Sino-German academic exchange for special praise. “I am impressed by how intensively several thousand students at your university engage with Germany and even come to spend a few semesters here with us, and by how open your university is to German students. But I’m also impressed by the strong commitment of Chinese and German companies to endowed chairs at the Sino-German University College, which your university established 18 years ago in collaboration with the German Academic Exchange Service.”

Following his speech, Gauck held discussions with students and doctoral candidates at Tongji University—perhaps even one or two in German. Those interested in the German-Chinese dual Bachelor’s degree program in mechatronics can contact Prof. Dr.-Ing. Frank Worlitz by email.

The Federal President’s full speech can be found here: http://www.bundespraesident.de/SharedDocs/Reden/DE/Joachim-Gauck/Reden/2016/03/160323-China-Universitaet.html