Tien Shan Mountains and metropolis visit

In early May, Ms. Kunze from the International Office and Prof. Schütte from the Faculty of Business Administration and Engineering Management traveled to Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city. The purpose of the trip was to prepare, as part of the ERASMUS+ program, for the renewal of existing institutional agreements (Faculty of Economics) as well as to submit new applications for the Faculty of Natural Sciences and the Faculty of Industrial Engineering in 2019.

After landing in Almaty, they first had to adjust to a 4-hour time difference; nevertheless, the first appointments and meetings at the DKU took place just a few hours later. The focus of the visit was on substantive and administrative coordination with the German-Kazakh University (DKU), with which the faculty already offers a dual-degree program. Ms. Kunze also spent half a day at TURAN University in the southern part of the city to discuss comparable modules in degree programmes (in this case, tourism), language requirements, and financial opportunities through DAAD programmes.

In addition to lectures by Prof. Schütte and meetings at the DKU’s International Office for Ms. Kunze, the program also included information sessions for interested Kazakh students who would like to spend a division of their studies with us.

Evenings were mostly spent with local experts, such as professors and staff members who work at DKU, the author of the travelogue “Discover Kazakhstan,” the director of the Goethe-Institut in Almaty, and the president of DKU. Over shashlik and vodka (or water), many fascinating conversations took place, which also provided some inspiration for future work.

On the major national holiday (Victory Day 1945), we went to the Butakowsky Waterfall, a hike totaling nearly 6 hours into the Tien Shan Mountains. Over the weekend, a minibus was arranged through DKU, and we traveled to the steppe with Kazakh students. Naturally, this excursion also led to in-depth conversations about the country and its people.

After a week, we both headed back home, taking with us many wonderful memories of Almaty and the surrounding area, as well as the many friendly people we met.