High Level Delegation from German University Visits NUST
The Presidents of the Ravensburg and the Karlsruhe Campuses of the Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemburg (DHBW), Germany, undertook a visit to NUST at the start of 2024 to deepen collaboration between the two universities.
Prof Herbert Dreher, President of DHBW’s Ravensburg Campus, and Prof Stephan Schenkel. President of the DHBW Karlsruhe campus, travelled to Namibia in January 2024 to explore new avenues of cooperation with NUST. Their aim was to deepen the decade-long collaboration with the Namibian university which began in 2014. Prof Dreher and Prof Schenkel were accompanied by the Heads of International Relations of their respective campuses.
DHBW is a cooperative state university of the German federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, that boasts 12 campuses across the region, with an enrolment of approximately 34 000 students. The German institution boasts 9000 partner companies throughout the European nation. It was the first higher education institution in Germany to combine practical workplace training and academic study. This allows DHBW to achieve a close integration of theory and practice, an essential aspect of the globally renowned dual studies system. DHBW offers a broad range of academic programmes including business, engineering and social work.
“We have been able to successfully implement the dual studies system, and this is hugely beneficial for our graduates in terms of their productivity and employability,” Prof Dreher said during a meeting with the NUST management. He added that DHBW would be willing to share their experiences and lessons learned with NUST should the Namibian university plan to implement the dual studies system.
Speaking during the meeting with the DHBW representatives, NUST Vice-Chancellor, Dr Erold Naomab said that the longstanding partnership between the two universities is testament to the commitment of each institution to holistic development of students through internationalisation of higher education.
In 2023, two NUST staff members undertook a week-long exchange to DHBW and one student spent three months at the German university on an academic exchange. The staff exchange from NUST to DHBW was made possible by means of Erasmus+ grants. A further two NUST students will spend five months at DHBW in 2024, having been awarded Erasmus+ scholarships for semester exchange.
