Präsident Marx member of a delegation to India

India is not only the most populous nation in the world, but is also rapidly developing into one of the leading centres of the global economy and innovation. With massive investments in research, technology and higher education as well as over 46,000 universities and more than 43 million students, India offers enormous potential for international cooperation. The increasing demand for study places and the desire for international exchange make the country a key partner for Germany, which already hosts around 50,000 Indian students at its universities.

At Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the group of international students from India is the second largest and has almost tripled in the last five years. The university currently has five bilateral agreements with educational institutions in India, with the oldest co-operation being in its twentieth year of existence.

Our President, Prof. Dr Andreas Marx, was in India from 15 to 24 March on a higher education policy visit organised by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), which brought together high-ranking representatives from academia, politics and business discussing academic exchange and scientific cooperation as well as the expansion of relations between universities in India and Germany. An important milestone on this path was the admission of our university as a member of the German House of Science in New DelhiExternal link, which our President officially sealed by accepting the membership certificate.

During the one-week visit President Marx took part in the ‘Indo-German Forum’ in New Delhi and visited numerous renowned research institutions and universities, including the University of Hyderabad with its bio-incubator BioNest, the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (CSIR) and Ashoka University in New Delhi. The aim of his talks on site were possible collaborations in the life and natural sciences, the expansion of international mobilities and the promotion of early career researchers and doctoral candidates in the Indo-German research area. Particularly pleasing is the new partnership with the University of Mumbai, which will offer students of German as a Foreign Language (DaF) and German as a Second Language (DaZ) further education opportunities in a trilateral cooperation programme ‘Teaching German’. Teacher training is to be further intensified in order to establish sustainable research and educational collaborations.