University of Bayreuth has opened office in Melbourne

- Uni Bayreuth goes Australia! -

Since taking up teaching in 1975, the University of Bayreuth has purposefully expanded its international strategic cooperation, including Australian universities. Currently, Bayreuth scientists from numerous disciplines are working together with eight universities in Australia. Because the Australian partners are concentrated in Melbourne (four out of eight Australian partner institutions are located there), opening a Gateway Office in Melbourne is only logical.

Therefore: Uni Bayreuth goes Australia!

Embedded in the current trend of extensive and intensified German-Australian cooperation in science and industry, the University of Bayreuth opened its Gateway Office on 26 June 2018 in the premises of the ‘Australian-German Energy Transition Hub’ of the University of Melbourne. "With our office in Melbourne, we can better support our scientists and our students who are in Down Under," explains University President Prof. Dr. Stefan Leible. The office not only helps with questions about studying, it also supports, for example, with visa matters or in the search for internships and living space.

Incidentally, the reverse is also true: we may now appear on the radar of Australian students for the first time with the establishment of our Gateway Office. Anyone who then decides to come to Bayreuth will find it much easier with our local office in Melbourne, "adds Prof. Dr. med. Thomas Scheibel, Vice President for International Affairs at the University of Bayreuth. "I think," said the University President, "that our move to Australia will also increase the number of excellent international students and scientists at the Bayreuth Unicampus."

Tasks of the Bayreuth Gateway Office

Following the establishment of the Bayreuth Gateway Office in Shanghai in April 2016, the office in Melbourne, Australia is now the second gateway office of the University of Bayreuth. The office in Melbourne has the following tasks:

• Information and contact point to promote the exchange of Australian and Bayreuth students and teachers

• Strengthening cooperation in research and teaching

• Establishment and maintenance of contacts to institutions in science and industry

• Support in the acquisition and selection of qualified Australian students and doctoral candidates for the University of Bayreuth

• Establishment and maintenance of contacts to the regional partner network of the University of Bayreuth in the Oceania region (Australia and New Zealand)

• Supervision of alumni

Australia as a strategic destination

Australia is a strategic destination for the internationalization of the University of Bayreuth. Dr. Arnim Heinemann, Head of the International Office at the University of Bayreuth, says: "Our attractiveness and international visibility have increased significantly as a result of our cooperation with the elite Australian universities of Melbourne and Monash. This is proven, among other things, by the international applications for a place to study in Bayreuth, which have increased significantly since the start of the DAAD-funded project 'Bayreuth-Melbourne Polymer / Colloid Network'. The cooperation with our Australian partners is characterized by a concentration of successful joint research projects such as the ARC Center of Excellence with multinational funding, as well as by an intensive scientific exchange and a good mutual mobility. This is reflected, for example, in numerous research stays by scientists and students as well as in joint courses at the Bayreuth International Summer School."

In Focus: Research Cooperation

The University of Bayreuth has been working intensively with universities in Australia for many years. Focus here is Melbourne with the University of Melbourne and Monash University as well as La Trobe University and Swinburne University of Technology. However, there are also collaborations with University of New York (Sydney), Newcastle (University of Newcastle), Brisbane (Queensland University of Technology), the Sunshine Coast (University of the Sunshine Coast) and Perth (University of Western Australia).

The focus is on the mobility of students and teachers as well as research collaborations. The spectrum of disciplines involved in the cooperation includes sports, law and economics, energy and environmental research as well as natural sciences, engineering and material sciences.

The cooperation of Bayreuth scientists from numerous disciplines with colleagues in Australia and New Zealand goes back a long time. This tradition of successful individual scientific cooperation has already resulted in initial formalized institutional partnerships. Since 2013, the strategic focus of cooperation in chemistry and polymer science, especially with the University of Melbourne and Monash University. The cooperation of the University of Bayreuth with both Australian universities has also been intensified through framework agreements to support joint doctorates.

DAAD supports cooperation

Since 2015, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has been supporting this cooperation within the program 'Strategic Partnerships and Thematic Networks'. Here, the focus is on the development of innovative materials for applications in the energy sector (for example, more efficient solar cells and LEDs) and in the medical sector (for example, 3D biomaterials). The network links the University of Bayreuth closely with German and international research institutions, which also play a leading role in the polymer and colloid sciences (eg with the Leibniz institutes INM Saarbrücken and IPF Dresden as well as with the Forschungszentrum Jülich, the University of Melbourne, the Monash University, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization CSIRO as well as with industry partners such as Chemie Cluster Bayern).