The world is calling
With research programmes and partnerships, Düsseldorf's universities are demonstrating that they can also hold their own internationally. And their students even more so.
In a globalised world, everything is strongly connected. This is true of a virus that puts us in a worldwide crisis mode. But it also applies to efforts to counteract this virus. Scientists around the globe are networking, exchanging ideas and learning from each other. International research is important to find the right answers to many new questions. And not just since the coronavirus pandemic.
For universities and other educational institutions, modern research is hardly possible without an international dimension. “It goes without saying that our research teams work with colleagues all over the world and complement each other with their expertise,” says Achim Zolke, press spokesman of the Heinrich Heine University (HHU). In future, the HHU wants to go farther than that, for example together with partner universities from France, Luxembourg, Poland and Sweden: Within the framework of the joint project UNIVERSEH, it participates in establishing a European space university.
How can plants in different regions adapt to changing conditions? The CEPLAS research project at the Heinrich Heine University is looking for answers.
One of the best known research projects at the HHU is called CEPLAS (Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences). It is the only cluster of excellence in plant sciences in Germany. The clusters of excellence funded by the Federal Government and the Länder are intended to make German university locations internationally competitive. More than 50 CEPLAS researchers from all over the world are investigating how plants in different regions adapt to changing conditions. With their findings, the researchers want to make a contribution to global issues such as climate change and the growing demand for food. To this end, the HHU is cooperating with other universities, such as Washington State University, Michigan State University or the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia.
The Japanese community in Düsseldorf is the third largest in Europe after London and Paris – which is why the HHU also takes a look at the Land of the Rising Sun: with three chairs, one professorship, one Heisenberg position and over 600 students, the Institute for Modern Japan is, according to its own statement, one of the largest Japanologies in Germany. The Japanese community in Düsseldorf regularly involves the Institute in its research and teaching and also exchanges ideas with nine Japanese partner universities.
“Medical research is also unthinkable without international cooperation,” says Achim Zolke. These include the EU-funded Human Brain Project for research into the human brain and a Transregional Collaborative Research Centre on aortic diseases funded by the German Research Foundation, for which the HHU cooperates with the University of Amsterdam, the University Hospital Bonn, the University Hospital Cologne and the Leibniz Institute for Environmental Medical Research in Düsseldorf.
“The reputation of a
university depends heavily on
the reputation of its teaching staff.”
Universities in Düsseldorf with a purely artistic focus, such as the Robert Schumann Hochschule or the Kunstakademie (art academy), also have a strong international impact. Often due to their teaching staff: “Those who want to study music often choose a particular professor. That's why the reputation of a university depends heavily on the reputation of its teaching staff,” says Matthias Schwarz, Press Spokesman of the Robert Schumann University of Music. “Those who are internationally renowned attract students from all over the world.” Lecturers of international renown at the Robert Schumann University include guitarist Joaquin Clerch from Cuba, Dutch cellist Pieter Wispelwey or violinist Yamei Yu from China. For the Kunstakademie, it is names like Tony Cragg or Rita McBride, among others, who as former rectors have promoted the international reputation of the Academy.
The Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences (HSD) has developed its own internationalisation strategy in 2015 to expand its global potential. Today, it participates in international exchange with 170 European and non-European higher education agreements and through congresses and summer schools. A special project in the Department of Architecture is Guga’s Thebe Theatre in South Africa, an arts and cultural centre in Cape Town. Teachers and students of the HSD have been involved in the design, planning and construction of the centre's extension. Since 2015 it has been attended by artists, children and young people for music, dance and theatre courses. One of the recent activities of the university is the EU project DARE – Dialogue about Radicalisation and Equality in the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences. Here, researchers and representatives of civil society from nine EU and four non-EU countries come together to understand radicalisation processes among young people in Islamist and extreme right-wing contexts and to develop intervention approaches.
But what can further cooperation between universities and foreign partners look like in times of Covid19? “Many things will certainly become more digital and produce new formats,” says Simone Fischer, spokeswoman of the HSD. In September, for example, the university organised the international conference EuroSPI², at which the latest research results from the systems, software and service process industries are presented annually, as a “hybrid concept”: Some presentations were held on site, the majority online. Most of the participants tuned in from all over the world to attend online. This is an example of how science communication can succeed at an international level even in times of crisis. •
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Words Elena Winter
Pictures PR, HHU Ceplas, HHU (Ivo Mayr), HSD