HWS World TWIN Receives 1.000.000€ for the Internationalization

Since 2014 University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt has been the first German university of applied sciences to offer bachelor's degree programmes in German and English (TWINs, currently: Logistics, Mechatronics, Business and Engineering, International Management and Robotics) at the same time that enable and promote bilingual education during the course of the degree. In this way, FHWS pursues the objective of contributing to the regional management of the demographic change by integrating young international talents.

The project FHWS World TWIN has now set itself the task of further development of the TWINS programmatically: initially with a focus on the robotics department (in addition to TWIN Robotics, the robotics specialization of TWIN Mechatronics). FHWS has found for this an important associate: Starting from the 1st January 2022, the project will receive the sum total of 1,000,000 euros for four years within the scope of the HAW.International Module B funding programme of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). With this programme, the DAAD is promoting the internationalization of the German universities of applied sciences, which aim to develop international curricula, digitized teaching formats and foster global university collaborations. This funding amount also marks a milestone in the internationalization history of FHWS, as it is the first time that a project with a seven-figure sum has been acquired in the context of university internationalization.

The project is carried out with five strategic partner universities of FHWS. These are German-Jordanian University from Jordan, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology from Taiwan, University of Applied Sciences Wiener-Neustadt from Austria, University of Engineering and Technology Lahore from Pakistan and Shenzhen Technology University from the People's Republic of China. Moreover, a World TWIN network is being created with these partners. The long-term goal is the worldwide establishment and creation of TWINS there, which are based on the concept of bilingual teaching, English as well as national language and they would correspond to the courses offered at FHWS. What is more, the project will contribute to the expansion of the existing cooperation with strategic partner universities and the network of industrial partners as well.

The preparation team consists of Dr. Daniel Wimmer (Head of International Office), Prof. Dr. Jean Meyer (Head of Robotics), Prof. Dr. Abid Ali (Head of Mechatronics) and Tugce Akarsu (Coordinator of the World Twin Programme).