University of Göttingen establishes representations in Nanjing and Seoul

Over the summer semester the University of Göttingen is preparing for the opening of foreign representations at university locations in China and South Korea. They will be set up in Nanjing and Seoul. With such offices the University of Göttingen together with the help of its international alumni aims to intensify existing collaborations and contacts and show what it has to offer, thus attracting academics and students to the Georg-August-University.

The establishment of foreign representations is part of Göttingen International – one of four projects in the “Future Concept” of the Georgia Augusta, with which the University was successful in the Excellence Initiative of the Federation and the States. Charged with the establishment and management of the representations in China and South Korea is Roswitha Brinkmann, Director of Foreign Affairs, who as sinologist spent over 17 years in the University’s international arena. She will initially travel to Nanjing. The Georgia Augusta is linked to the university there through a long-term partnership.


Signing the cooperation agreement: Prof. Dr. Jang-Mu Lee, President of the Seoul National University, (left), and University President Prof. Dr. Kurt von Figura in November 2007

The initial task is the creation of a local infrastructure. A further task will be to introduce the Georgia Augusta at universities, and to academics, students and alumni as well as to companies and funding bodies. With respect to the aims followed by the University of Göttingen with the establishment of the foreign representations Brinkmann explains that “we want to support and extend the networks already in existence and support young scientists”.

In May she will travel on to the capital of South Korea. The representation of Göttingen is located in the building of the Kim Hee-Kyung Fellowship-Foundation for European Studies. The director of this scholarship foundation and alumna of Göttingen, Prof. Dr. Chung-Ok Kim, is currently establishing a German-language specialist library there. “Our permanent presence here is of great importance to our alumni” states Brinkmann, who has been maintaining contact with the alumni association in South Korea of more than 300 members for many years. Additionally, the University of Göttingen is again represented with a stall at the convention “German World” in Seoul in May 2008.



University President Prof. Dr. Kurt von Figura visiting the University of Nanjing: Meeting students at the jointly funded German-Chinese Institute for Legal Sciences

University President Prof. Dr. Kurt von Figura agreed the establishments of the foreign representations during a visit in November 2007. Further, he signed an agreement at Nanjing University for the introduction of a dual diploma course and visited two universities in Beijing. During his visit to Seoul he met many members of the Korean alumni association of the University of Göttingen and concluded further cooperation agreements with the Seoul National University and the Korea University. The programme also included visits to the Incheon University and the Ewha University, with which there are already existing research contacts and a student exchange programme.