For several years now, there has been close cooperation between the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the French educational institutions ANFA and GARAC in the master's degree programme “Automotive and Commercial Vehicle Engineering”. In order to maintain the close exchange, the faculty opened its teaching modules to French students in autumn 2020 – but because of the coronavirus pandemic, this was only possible digitally. At the start of the winter semester, the faculty representatives welcomed a French delegation from Paris to the university and stepped up the format that had been launched.
Together with their group leaders, 19 French master's students visited Landshut University of Applied Sciences for a week to get to know the academic environment and their cooperation partners personally and to exchange ideas about the joint project. The three-day programme also included guided tours of the campus – through the Technologiezentrum Energie in Ruhstorf – with the scientific director Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Pettinger, and through Landshut and Munich. The French guests also took part in a tour of the BMW Group factory in Munich and a guided tour of the Deutsches Museum.
International cooperation in mixed teams
As in the previous year, five joint projects are taking place in this winter semester, two of which are under French leadership for the first time. “The aim of the project is to teach the German and French students the skills that are important in the global job market and to give them the opportunity to acquire important soft skills,” says Prof. Dr. Manfred Strohe, head of the “Automotive and Commercial Vehicle Technology” master's programme. “This means that participants can gain experience in an international and intercultural environment, in project coordination, in communicating in a foreign language (English) and in delegating and dividing up areas of work,” added faculty advisor Alexey Istratov, who was responsible for organising the programme.
A Franco-German team of teachers is responsible for the continuous supervision of the individual working groups during the semester and is in constant contact with each other. The person providing the topic leads the project, while the other teacher serves as the contact person for the students on site. The assessment of the student's performance takes place in close coordination between the two teachers. This ensures that there is a lively exchange about pedagogical concepts and teaching content not only between students but also between lecturers. This means that “internationalisation of the world of work” becomes a lived component of the degree programme.
Photos: Landshut University of Applied Sciences
(free to use where source is indicated)
