In the summer semester of 2017, the HSZG welcomed the first student from St. Petersburg for an exchange semester.
The cooperation between ITMO University Saint Petersburg (State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics) and the Chair of Integrated Management Systems at HSZG , which has existed since July 2016, is bearing fruit. After a student from Zittau successfully spent a semester abroad at ITMO University in the winter semester 2016/17, we welcomed the first Russian student, Vasilisa Dobrynina, for an exchange semester at our university in the summer semester 2017:
"It was really the best experience that I've had in my life. I'm so thankful for the professors, who decided to make this true, and provide me with courses in English. I felt happy all the time I was in Zittau, I am still happy and proud to be a part of this course and university and to be at the beginning of the new international cooperation between Hochschule Zittau/Goerlitz and ITMO University. Thanks Jana Brauweiler, Anke Zenker-Hoffmann, Markus Will and Bernd Delakowitz, you are perfect team and wonderful people! Looking forward to seeing everybody in Saint-Petersburg!"
Vasilisa is studying "Environment, Energy, Occupational and Health Safety Systems" at ITMO University and has taken modules on "Quantitative Environmental Assessment of Products", "Software Applications" (Umberto), "Energy Quest" and "Interculturality" with us. She also completed an internship at the Löbau-based company "ULT AG" during her studies. Both the modules and the internship were conducted in English, which was both a challenge and an opportunity for everyone involved. Many thanks to the lecturers Prof. Dr. Bernd Delakowitz, Anke Zenker-Hoffmann, Markus Will, Prof. Dr. Klaus Werner and Frank Schneider as well as Dr. Stefan Jakschik as Managing Director of ULT AG. Vasilisa was able to complete all her exams with very good and good grades and is now continuing her studies at ITMO University.
Vasilisa's course director and Dean of the Industrial Ecology Faculty at ITMO, Prof. Dr. Olga Sergienko, visited HSZG in June 2017 to agree the details of the double degree program with the Industrial Ecology and Cleaner Production (ITMO) and Integrated Management Systems (HSZG) courses. The first students can be enrolled here from the winter semester 2017/18. We will be able to welcome the first St. Petersburg student on the double degree program at our university in the summer semester of 2018.
In order to coordinate further professional cooperation, representatives from the Integrated Management Systems degree program will travel to St. Petersburg in mid-September this year for an intensive week on the topic of "Resource and Energy Efficient Management". Together with students from ITMO University, Kostroma State University (another partner university of the HSZG with a double degree program in Integrated Management) and interested international students, the professional cooperation will be deepened in lectures, seminars, business games and company visits.
With 11,600 students (including 1,400 students from 70 countries), ITMO is one of the top 3 universities in Russia and is ranked 56th in international rankings (for more information, see en.ifmo.ru).
We would like to thank the team at the Department of Studies and International Affairs for their organizational and administrative support during the introduction of the double degree programme and for accompanying the student and lecturer mobilities. These were and are funded by the ERASMUS+ program (mobility with partner countries) and the DAAD program "Eastern Partnerships", among others.
