Freiberg, 17 October 2022
Today, a tripartite agreement was reached and signed between Taita Taveta University (TTU), Montanuniversität Leoben (MUL) and TU Bergakademie Freiberg. Present were Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Barbknecht, the Rector of the TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Prof. Dr. Fred Barasa, the Vice Chancellor (“Rector”) of Taita Taveta University, and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Carsten Drebenstedt as the second signatory for the TU Bergakademie Freiberg. On the part of the Montanuniversität Leoben, Prof. Dipl. Ing. Dr. Peter Moser, the Vice-Rector for Infrastructure and International Relations, joined online.
After signing, TTU students can apply for a place in the international Master’s programme for the first time. The application deadline for the upcoming batch is 31 January 2023. The selection will be made by an International Committee of the participating university partners in Madrid in mid-March 2023.
The studies begin with the first semester in Leoben and continue with the second semester in Freiberg. In the third semester, students select another partner university and TTU presents itself now as the preferred African partner university. The Master’s thesis is jointly supervised by two or more universities. After successfully fulfilling all the study requirements, students receive a triple degree. TTU students have an opportunity to enrol in this unique international study programme. Students at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg now also have the opportunity to spend a semester abroad at the partner university and obtain their joint degree there.
With the exchange of students, the participating universities transfer knowledge and gain access to information that could be of interest for further doctoral programmes and research projects. The agreement is pegged on the project that established a DAAD-funded Centre of Excellence for Mining, Environmental Engineering and Resource Management (CEMEREM) in Kenya. The partner universities are Taita Taveta University (TTU), the TU Bergakademie Freiberg (TU BAF), and Dresden University of Applied Sciences (HTW-Dresden).
For almost 10 years, there has been a wide range of cooperations with TTU, e.g., in the design and equipment of laboratories, the establishment of new courses of study, teaching activities of the German partner universities on site, summer schools in Germany and Kenya, training of students and scientists in Freiberg and Dresden, the establishment of technology and didactics for digital courses, and now joint alumni seminars. CEMEREM also organises a conference every two years focused on the thematic areas of mining education, the environment, and natural resources.
Prof. Fred Barasa, the Vice Chancellor of TTU, was delighted with the tripartite agreement and commented as follows: “After carefully managing successful negotiations with our German and Austrian partner universities, TTU, as the only university of mining in Kenya, looks forward to becoming the very first African partner in this excellent international study programmme. We will encourage students from Kenya to apply and actively participate and we will welcome any students of this programme at our campus. For TTU, this agreement proves to be another milestone in our internationalisation strategy within Africa and beyond.”