HWR Berlin partners with Universidad Complutense de Madrid
One programme, two Bachelor’s degrees. The President of the HWR Berlin and the Rector of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) signed an agreement establishing a dual award programme.
Students of Business Administration at the HWR Berlin and the UCM can now obtain a degree from both universities. The agreement regulating the new programme was signed within part of a virtual meeting between the President of the HWR Berlin, Professor Andreas Zaby, and the Rector of the UCM, Professor Joaquín Goyache Goñi, on 17th December 2020.
Photo: Sylke Schumann, HWR Berlin
This new development serves to deepen and intensify relations between two of Europe’s leading centres of learning. The Department of Business and Economics at the HWR Berlin and the Faculty of Economics at the UCM have run a student exchange programme since 2014. The HWR is ranked as Germany’s premier University of Applied Science within the DAAD Erasmus+ programme; the UCM is Spain’s largest university providing in-person teaching. The programme has even continued unabated during the current pandemic. Both institutions provide lectures in hybrid format wherever possible and online wherever necessary.
Prof Zaby noted the importance of the dual award programme: “we have taken the academic exchange between Berlin and Madrid to the next level [...] and in so doing have reacted to the growing popularity of Spanish in German schools, whilst reacting to the increasing need for practice-oriented international degree programmes.”
The European Union supports international academic mobility for both students and academics and the structured co-operation between university departments through programs such as Erasmus+. “The combination of research and innovation within university training makes a decisive contribution to social development within Europe and beyond”, thus Prof. Zaby. Drawing on his expertise as professor for international management, chairman of the the UAS7 alliance of universities of applied science and board member of the German Academic Exchange Service, Prof Zaby knows that “Europe needs highly-qualified, broad-minded specialists well-versed in international co-operation, in order to generate economic growth and prosperity for all and so to meet the global challenges of tomorrow.”
Photo: Sylke Schumann, HWR Berlin
HWR students enrolled in the new dual award programme will spend a year studying in Madrid and a six-month internship in Spain. Graduates of the programme will profit from their international experience and language skills, establishing a network and qualification portfolio which will facilitate their career entry.
This new agreement with the Complutense University of Madrid is one of thirteen successful dual award programmes which the HWR Berlin currently runs with leading international partner universities. The HWR Berlin maintains 195 active partnerships with universities on all continents.