The Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment (FEBE) recently gave a fond farewell to three exchange students from Hochschule Dusseldorf - University of Applied Sciences (HSD) who spent six months at the Faculty.
At this gathering, the students from the German university shared their experiences about the student exchange programme at CPUT and life in South Africa especially in Cape Town. Asst. Dean: Research, Technology, Innovation & Partnerships, Prof Veruscha Fester, opened a question-and-answer session about the students’ exchange programme experience at CPUT. Fester said she wanted to know how their experience was in South Africa. The students responded positively saying that they had always wanted to come to South Africa and experience the culture.
Asked about choosing CPUT, the students said Düsseldorf has built a good relationship with several universities in Cape Town, but they selected CPUT and due to the long standing relationship CPUT has with Düsseldorf. Quizzed about differences between education in Germany and South Africa, they said CPUT allows students to work more independently which provided them opportunity to grow.
The titles of the projects for the three students are:
- Jil Labes - Analysis for drone rescue.
- Julian Hasemann - Development of extruder for the recycling of 3D printing filaments.
- Lanlucas van de Veen - 3D printable structure for the cube-sat standard.
The students also highlighted that they had experienced the kindness and hospitality of the people of South Africa, saying that they “are happy with what they have, and they learned that happiness does not cost a lot. South African people are kind”. They also said they have noticed a gap between rich and poor. The students also expressed some challenges they experienced while in Cape Town.
Fester said in her closing remarks: “Receiving international students allows us to benefit from internationalisation at home which allows interaction between local students and international students and faculty. So, it’s important that we make the internationalisation agreement work for what it is that we want to achieve. That is to develop a multi-cultural community by building capacity in learning and teaching, research and technology innovation and community engagement for students and staff as global citizens in preparation of a global world.”
Prof Jörg Niemann, Claudia Fussenecker and Martin Schlösser, from the "Life Cycle Excellence" research unit at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, together with Dr Monika Katz from the International Office, laid the foundation for this long-term and sustainable partnership that has seen several staff and student exchanges over the past 7 years.
Written by Aphiwe Boyce
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