Visit to with Guest Lecture in Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University
Networking of partners between Bavarian and Ethiopian universities has been launched by lead university Weihenstephan-Triesdorf (HSWT) since May 2020. The partnership officially launched in a virtual meeting held on August 19, 2020.
Debre Markos University has been considered to be one of the Bavarian-Ethiopian networking program member universities after emails between Prof. Dr. Carsten Lorz (Vice President for International Affairs of Weihenstephan-Triesdorf) and Dr. Sayeh Kassaw (the timely vice president for business and development of DMU) since May 2020. The university has been given the opportunity to participate in different programs (Land use, agriculture, forestry, food processing, natural and social sciences). The institute of land administration is one of the organizations in DMU which started cooperation with the Regional Management program of Triesdorf campus in areas of land use. Even though due to the pandemic most activities were being executed virtually, Dr. Sayeh Kassaw, from the institute of land administration, has visited HSWT from May 30 – June 03/2022.
The purpose of the visit was for a guest lecture to MSc regional management students. However, discussions and visits were also accompanied in the program. The visit started from Weihenstephan campus of the university (from 30/05/22 – 31/05/22). Within these two days, Freising town, Weihenstephan campus were visited. There were discussions with the vice president for international affairs, and with a professor from the landscape architecture program. Dr Sayeh introduced himself to master architecture students. The discussions were impressive and we discussed how to send students for a master program in landscape architecture.
On june 01/2022, there was a journey to the second campus of the university, Triesdorf campus. On the way to the campus, we crossed rural areas which are evergreen and aesthetical landscape. The forest cover, crop land, water bodies, infrastructure, in general the land use pattern of the rural areas is very impressive. Upon arrival at the campus, we visited Triesdorf, which is green and attractive. It is the center of excellence for agriculture in the Bavarian region. However, the regional management program is also promising. On June 02, 2022, after visiting some rural areas and observing peri-urban land transformation, a guest lecture was delivered to 60 regular students on international land management. There were also 12 students attending the lecture virtually. In total 72 participants were actively following the guest lecture. The participation of students in attending the class and raising questions was really interesting. The lecture was announced in a German daily newspaper.
After finishing the guest lecture, on 03/06/2022, we had a virtual meeting with the head of the department of Land Management and Land Tenure of the technical university of Munich. We agreed to work together in areas of academics, especially in joint research and capacity building areas.
So, the partnership we launched with Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University is fruitful and has to be strengthened. Professors from HSWT will also come to DMU next year.
