HRK wants to strengthen cooperation with South African universities

With more than 150 university partnerships, South Africa is already Germany’s most important partner in the field of higher education on the African continent.

At the invitation of the HRK, the executive committee of the South African rectors conference »Higher Education South Africa« (HESA) came to Berlin in September to learn more about the current developments in higher education policy and sign a framework agreement on university cooperation with the HRK.

The newly established working group will address such issues as internationalisation and knowledge transfer, and prepare opportunities for sharing expertise. It has also been assigned the task of communicating mutually relevant fields of research and evaluating a recent analysis of strengths and weaknesses in higher education collaboration.

Along with Prof. Karl Beucke, the newly appointed members of the German working group are Prof. Beate Schücking (University of Leipzig), Prof. Dr. Arnold van Zyl (TU Chemnitz), Prof. Bernd Siebenhüner (University of Oldenburg), Prof. Wilhelm Löwenstein (Ruhr-University Bochum) and an HRK representative. The next meeting is planned at the end of 2013 or beginning of 2014.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karl Beucke has numerous contacts to and experience with South African universities. For example, he spent a number of years helping the Stellenbosch University create a new course, which he himself taught on a regular basis. The Bauhaus-Universität Weimar also maintains an active partnership with the North-West University (NWU) in Potchefstrom.