30 years of success: Anniversary of the cooperation between URI and TU Braunschweig!

30 years of success: Anniversary of the cooperation between URI and TU Braunschweig!

Today the University of Rhode Island (URI) and the Technical University of Braunschweig (TU Braunschweig) are celebrating the 30th anniversary of their successful partnership. The cooperation began three decades ago with a cooperation agreement that has since developed into one of the most important collaborations between a German and a US university. To mark the anniversary, President Angela Ittel and other representatives of TU Braunschweig will take part in a ceremony in Rhode Island.

The partnership between these two institutions includes not only the International Engineering Program, but also a double degree program. In the first phase of the exchange, which began in 1995, students were already sent. The official cooperation agreement was finally signed in 1997. Since then, almost 1,000 students have taken part in this exchange, which has established itself as the most successful German-American university exchange program in Germany.

A wide range of study options and degrees

Students at TU Braunschweig have the opportunity to acquire both a German and a US master’s degree as part of the double degree program. Bachelor's students from URI spend a whole year at TU Braunschweig. The dual degree program includes disciplines such as civil engineering, environmental engineering, bioengineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and industrial engineering.

An important aspect of this cooperation is the joint PhD program as well as numerous research projects that are organized across all faculties at TU Braunschweig. In June 2023, a further agreement on cooperation as strategic partners was signed, which is intended to further deepen the cooperation in the coming years. The plan is to expand the research partnership, supported, among other things, by the Matching Funds program.

Future prospects and challenges

The Matching Funds Program aims to promote new collaborations, research projects and publications. There is potential for future collaboration in innovative areas such as ocean engineering, sustainability, quantum and nanotechnology and (teacher) education. The relevance of such international collaborations is continually increasing as German universities increasingly focus on transnational education.

As the international-hochschulkooperationen.de emphasizes, the code for German university projects abroad is a central component that sets minimum qualitative requirements. Both German universities and their international partners are required to follow this code in order to ensure high-quality and ethically responsible collaboration.

In summary, the 30-year cooperation between URI and TU Braunschweig shows how fruitful international academic partnerships can be. The continuous development of these relationships offers promising prospects for future generations of students and scientists.

The he.uni-mainz.de also reports that such international collaborations often lead to double or multiple degrees and the introduction of new degree programs represents a complex but worthwhile challenge. The approach to creating and successfully implementing these new study programs requires precise planning and close cooperation between the partner universities.

This ongoing and strategically planned collaboration not only benefits the universities, but above all the students, who can broaden their horizons and build internationally relevant skills.

We remember that the roots of this partnership date back to the 1980s and were initiated through the commitment of personalities such as John Grandin and Hermann Viets, who laid the foundation for a promising academic future.