Press release: Excellent perspectives for academic collaboration

Nr. 258/2016 - 28.11.2016

Göttingen University intensifies contacts with India – opening of Göttingen Pune Outreach Centre celebrated

(pug) The University of Göttingen is intensifying its already outstanding contacts to India: Together with the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER-Pune), it celebrated the opening of the Göttingen Pune Outreach Centre (GPOC). In future, scholars and researchers working on the entire Göttingen Campus, the collaboration between Göttingen University and eight non-university scientific institutions in Göttingen, will have the opportunity to use the GPOC to hold academic events and activities relating to education and research. The centre will also offer students a place for academic encounters and targeted education in German-Indian joint ventures.

"The Göttingen Pune Outreach Centre provides a special place for scientific events and experiments, but also for academic exhibitions and information events on the Göttingen Campus,“ states Professor Hiltraud Casper-Hehne, Vice-President for International Affairs at Göttingen University. “Moreover, the centre is designed to be open for scientific discussions and accessible to the broad interested public.” The GPOC is located in a pavilion of 210 square metres designed in 2011 by the German architect and installation artist Markus Heinsdorff to honour the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of India.

Since 2008, Göttingen University has maintained a liaison office at Savitribai Phule Pune University. Since 2012, it has been a member of the German House for Research and Innovation (GHRI) in New Delhi. The Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS) of the University in Göttingen, founded in 2009 with the support of the Ministry for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony, is concerned with the teaching and research of India's current economic and political development. CeMIS differs from many similar institutions in India and Germany by virtue of its focus on the Modern and an interdisciplinary approach that fosters a plethora of international collaborations. Beyond this, CeMIS is associated with the first international study college established through funding by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research abroad (BMBF). The BMBF has approved a grant totalling one million euros for the first two years of the twelve-year project.

The number of students from Göttingen who go to India during their studies rose from four in 2008 to over 50 in 2015, not least motivated by the excellent academic institutional affiliations there. Indeed, this increase can also be attributed to an intensified information policy, preparation, support and supervision of the students by the International Office. Since 2007, the number of Indian students in Göttingen increased from 45 to a current 184, also thanks to the good reputation of the Georgia Augusta in India and the excellent education offered in Göttingen. In addition to that, 211 Indian scholars and scientists are currently doing research in Göttingen. "The German-Indian cooperation projects set up since 2008 are outstanding and now being intensified further by the establishment of the GPOC,“ says Prof. Casper-Hehne. "This lets us harness the high potential for scientific collaboration with academic partners in India even more effectively.“

Contact:
Professor Hiltraud Casper-Hehne
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Vice President for International Affairs
Wilhelmsplatz 1, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Phone +49 (0)551 39-13110
E-mail: hiltraud.casper-hehne@zvw.uni-goettingen.de
Website: www.uni-goettingen.de/de/vizepraesidentin-fuer-internationales-prof-dr-hiltraud-casper-hehne-/110984.html