Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany, strengthens ties with universities in USA
JLU President accompanies Premier of State of Hesse to Wisconsin and California – consolidation agreements signed with long-standing partners within framework of JLU internationalisation strategy
Nr. 66 • 9. Mai 2016
To further intensify co-operation in research and teaching with the USA, the President of Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU), Prof. Dr. Joybrato Mukherjee, has signed consolidation agreements with the Universities of Madison and Milwaukee in Wisconsin. The JLU President and the Head of the International Office at JLU, Julia Volz, visited the American partner universities as part of the academic delegation led by Hessian Premier Volker Bouffier on his week-long visit to various destinations in the U.S. The Premier was accompanied by a group of 60 representatives from politics, industry and academia. Apart from the JLU President, who was also travelling as Vice President of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Volker Bouffier was also accompanied by Prof. Dr. Birgitta Wolff, Prof. Dr. Katharina Krause and Prof. Dr. Hans Jürgen Prömel, the Presidents of the Universities of Frankfurt, Marburg and of the Technical University of Darmstadt, respectively.
The visit marked the 40th anniversary of the partnership between Hesse and Wisconsin and Bouffier was glad to renew the partnership between the two federal states. “I am happy to see that a foundation of the partnership is the intensive exchange of students at secondary and tertiary level. The exchange between young people is the best basis for mutual understanding and the formation of a common future in a globalised world,” said the Premier. The strong ties between Hesse and Wisconsin are exemplary. The 40-year-old partnership was the first between the U.S. and Germany at the federal state level.
„“Our co-operation with the Universities of Madison and Milwaukee has been running excellently for many years,” JLU President Prof. Mukherjee stressed. “I am very glad the interest in an active exchange and the systematic development of our co-operation is mutual. JLU sees the Universities of Madison and Milwaukee in Wisconsin as strategic partners in the U.S. and thus as an important anchor for our new internationalisation strategy.”
The partnerships between JLU and the Universities of Madison and Milwaukee in Wisconsin have been in place for over 30 years. JLU also co-ordinates the complete exchange programme between all the Hessian universities and sites of the “University of Wisconsin System”. In the framework of this exchange programme, there are about 100 annual visits organised for academics and students.
The second part of the U.S. trip took the Hessian delegation to California, where they visited the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) and Stanford University. At UCB, Premier Bouffier lectured on the future of the European Union from the German perspective to members of the Center for German and European Studies, which was funded by the DAAD. At the famous Hoover Institute at Stanford University, Bouffier spoke on the repercussions of the refugee crisis on Germany and Europe. This was followed up by a discussion hosted by Josef Joffe, the editor of the German ZEIT magazine, between the academic delegation and a number of high-calibre U.S. experts and journalists.
- Contact
Julia Volz
Head of the International Office at Justus Liebig University Giessen
Goethestrasse 58, 35390 Gießen
Telephone: +49 641 99-12130
Pressestelle der Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Telefon: 0641 99-12041