The President of the University of Applied Sciences Trier (UAS Trier), Prof. Dr. Dorit Schumann, and GJU’s Vice President for International Affairs, Prof. Dr. Ralf Roßkopf, signed a strategic partnership in Trier on July 5th, 2022.
UAS Trier is one of the first partners of GJU where both universities have a long-lasting history of cooperation where there is a strong student and staff exchange between both universities. Moreover, Trier’s current President Prof. Dr. Dorit Schumann was Prof. Dr. Ralf Roßkopf’s predecessor as GJU Vice President for International Affairs.
With the signing of this agreement, both partners confirm their intention to further develop strengthen their cooperation on different levels through establishing institutionalized communication channels between the two universities, the identification of focus areas, joint research and innovation projects, checking on possible synergies in the area of teaching and the joint development of educational online offers. Therefore, in order to successfully carry out these various activities respective structures and communication channels will be implemented in the near future.
Prof. Roßkopf conducted very positive discussions with deans and faculty of several of UAS Trier’s schools, which centered on potential collaborations in the fields like: sustainable building, green economy and entrepreneurship, NGO management or industry 4.0 and robotics. In addition, UAS Fulda’s “Environmental Campus Birkenfeld” is the first zero carbon free university campus in Germany where GJU could profit from their experience for its own environment friendly future plans in terms of becoming sustainability role model in the region.
During the meetings on the campus, GJU exchange students and a former exchange student of the UAS Trier to GJU gave testimonials about their very positive experiences and their feedback in the form of recommendations for further developments.
Furthermore, UAS Trier’s President Prof. Dr. Schumann, who is also a Vice President of Germany’s University Presidents’ Conference (Hochschulrektorenkonferenz – HRK), is expected to visit GJU in September as part of a delegation of the German Research Association (Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft – DFG). This visit poses as another opportunity to further specify the next steps for the implementation of the strategic partnership.