Press release: Collaborative agreement on global and transregional studies
Nr. 6/2017 - 18.01.2017
Volkswagen Group joins alliance with Göttingen Campus – general agreement signed and sealed
(pug) The Volkswagen Group has become an associate partner of the Göttingen Campus, the alliance between the University of Göttingen and eight non-university scientific institutions in Göttingen. The University and the Volkswagen Group have signed a general agreement: Their objective for the future is to work together more closely on research and teaching projects, particularly in the area of global and transregional studies. The collaboration agreement primarily relates to projects in the Social Sciences and Humanities, but also in other academic disciplines. Amongst other benefits, this alliance gives students the opportunity to do internships at Volkswagen or finish their final theses at the corporation.
Dr. Thomas Steg, the Volkswagen Group's General Representative for External Relations and Sustainability: “A corporation like Volkswagen needs quality in its political and global analyses. The alliance with Göttingen University gives us the chance to drive progress and set new benchmarks.“
According to Professor Jochem Heizmann, Volkswagen’s Management Board Member responsible for China, “Volkswagen has already experienced excellent results in working collaboratively with Göttingen University within the scope of its endowed professorship on modern China. The aim of our general agreement is to expand upon this moving forward.“
University President Professor Ulrike Beisiegel sees the alliance as a crucial step towards further evolving the Göttingen Campus. "Innovations are born at the interfaces between institutions of higher education and enterprises, and we in Germany need to strengthen these interfaces overall,” she explains. “Therefore, I am pleased that we have been able to win over the Volkswagen Group as an associate of the Göttingen Campus. Beyond this, students who learn to move around in a corporate environment early in their careers have much better prospects for successful mastery of their entry into the working world.”
“This alliance with the Volkswagen Group gives us the opportunity to further expand the focus of our research to global and transregional studies,“ adds Professor Hiltraud Casper-Hehne, Vice-President for International Affairs at Göttingen University. "This puts Göttingen University right up there with the major European competence centres in this field.”
Some of the institutions actively working on research in global and transregional studies at Göttingen University include the Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS) and the Centre for Modern East Asian Studies (CeMEAS) alongside other professorships focused on Southeast Asia, Africa and the Arab region, for example. Beyond this, the University offers numerous regionally orientated degree programmes, specifically in Chinese and Indian studies. Moreover, these scholars and researchers are pursuing several collaborative projects on issues concerning globalisation and transregional relationships. Since 2015, the Volkswagen Group has been funding the endowed professorship on "Modern China with a global history focus“ at Göttingen University.
Contact:
Professor Hiltraud Casper-Hehne
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Vice-President of International Affairs
Wilhelmsplatz 1, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Phone: +49 (0)551 39-13110
Email: hiltraud.casper-hehne@zvw.uni-goettingen.de
Website: www.uni-goettingen.de/en/vizepraesidentin-fuer-internationales-prof-dr-hiltraud-casper-hehne-/110984.html