Faculty, students from Germany visit Kannur varsity

Updated on: Monday, October 31, 2011

As the tie-up between the Kannur University and the University of Calw in Germany as well as its sister institution, Riedlingen University, is entering sixth year of their inking the agreement for exchange of business management students and faculty, a group of students and faculty members from Germany reached here to attend the month-long academic and non-academic events organised by Kannur University’s Department of Management Studies (DMS) as part of the ongoing exchange programme.

The nine-member German group headed by Professor Julia Sander, Rector of the Reidlingen University, reached here on October 29 as part of the student and faculty exchange programme on a bilateral basis. It was the third group of students and teachers from the German universities to visit the Kannur University under the programme, which included academic sessions as well as project work. Three groups of MBA students of the Kannur University had also visited the Universities of Calw and Riedlingen since the agreement was signed on January 6, 2006.

Both the Hochschule Calw and Hochschule Riedlingen are two of the six private universities run by the SRH Foundation, a non-profit German organization. The tie-up between the Kannur University and the German universities are the outcome of an idea mooted during the visit of a delegation from the State, including then Vice-Chancellor of the Kannur University late P.K. Rajan, to Calw in 2002 to attend the International Hermann Hesse Festival.

The first academic programme to be attended by the visiting German professors and students here is a two-day international conference on ‘Emerging delivery mechanisms of management education’ being organised by the DMS on the Kannur University’s Mangattuparamba campus from October 31. Apart from the academic events, the exchange programme will also include visits to the Neeleswaram and Mananthavady campuses of the university and the Institute of Co-operative Management at Parassinikkadavu here.

“Six years of the exchange programme has been fruitful both in the academic and cultural fields,” Prof. Sander told The Hindu. The partnership between the teachers and students of the Kannur University and of the Calw and Riedlingen Universities in holding classes, interaction, seminars and conferences has enriched the experiences of the students and faculty from both sides, she added. She was on her second visit to the Kannur University. She would speak on the ‘Mobile MBA’, which she said was a modern concept in teaching and learning using specially developed iPad applications, at the conference on October 31.

Echoing Prof. Sander, Professor Martin Knoke, faculty member in the visiting German group, who is also Dean of Management Studies, said it was amazing that the partnership was continuing. He would be speaking on the delivery of the health care and welfare in Germany, while Michael Sander, faculty member specialising in health care management would talk on the integration of the health care relationship management and the Indian management philosophy. The SRH Foundation is also running seven hospitals in Germany.

The students, who formed part of the German delegation, are all Masters students in different branches of management studies in the two German universities. They are Olga Kock, Andre Roese, Maike Muller, Benjamin Britsch, David Krampe and Kevin Grafe.

They told The Hindu that they were looking forward to their interactions with students and teachers of the management studies of the Kannur University on a range of management-related topics including business psychology, health care management, leadership, social media trends, social security and quality management, among others. Equally important was their planned contacts with local people and visit to cultural institutions and events during their one-month stay here, they added.

Professor T. Asokan, head of the DMS, said that the bond between his department and the two German universities was now being extended to joint research projects programmes. The first research programme on risk reporting by corporates in India and Germany focuses on Nifty-100 and Dax-100 companies excluding financial institutions. The programme was almost completed, Dr. Asokan said.

Faculty, students from Germany visit Kannur varsity

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