Latin America focus of the University of Kassel: University partnership with Havana and Buenos Aires

The joint project involves the exchange of students, doctoral candidates and professors. The topics of the cooperation are sustainability and socio-ecological transformation. In addition, further training in university didactics is to take place. "We want to contribute to close cooperation in teaching," says Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Burchardt, who is responsible for the project. Annual conferences are planned at the University of Kassel and at UNSAM as part of the project.

The university partnership is not only intended to increase the international mobility of students, doctoral candidates and teachers, but also to promote intercultural competencies and content-related exchange. For the University of Kassel, student exchange is the focus of the university partnership: in the winter semester, two students per year will complete a one-semester study abroad program at UNSAM. Students receive a full scholarship. Prerequisites are knowledge of Spanish, good academic results, personal interest in studying and motivation. The announcement for the scholarships for the semester abroad at UNSAM takes place at the end of each winter semester.

For the University of Kassel, the project ties in with existing collaborations with universities in Argentina and Cuba and, for the first time, also links the foreign partners with each other via a South-South partnership. Thus, in addition to the collaborative project Maria Sibylla Merian Center for Advanced Latin American Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences (CALAS), another important cooperation has been established at the University of Kassel's Latin American Center CELA. "The university partnership further expands the Latin American focus at the University of Kassel and makes Kassel increasingly attractive for teaching and research," said Prof. Burchardt.

Contact:

Alexandra Bechtum
University of Kassel
Department of International and Inter-Societal Relations
Tel: 0561/804-3934
E-mail: abechtum@uni-kassel.de