Oct 30, 2008
From Bologna to Lake Baikal
One year ago, the Duma of the Russian Federation decided to introduce a two-stage programme of higher education analogous to the European Bachelor's / Master's Degree programmes. Lecturers from the Technische Universität Dresden, together with their colleagues from Vienna and Copenhagen, are to help establish a new Master of Waste Management programme at three Siberian universities.
This is to be based on waste management courses that nowadays are often incorporated in Environmental Studies programmes in Europe. Such courses have not as yet been part of the curriculum at Russian universities, which still lack the technical know-how and experience in a field that is circumscribed by the European environmental policy of "reduce, reuse, recycle" - the so-called "3Rs Strategy of Waste Management".
An inaugural meeting was held at the beginning of this year. The prospective Russian lecturers are now to pay their second visit to the Pirna Institute of Waste Management and Contaminated Site Treatment. During the next six weeks, representatives from Siberian universities will attend regular lectures at the TU Dresden and work in its laboratories. The visiting delegates are from the Chair of Natural Resource Management and Environment Protection at the State Technical University Irkutsk, the Chair for Ecology and Life Security at the East Siberian State Technological University Ulan-Ude, and the Chair for Industrial Ecology and Chemical Engineering at the Siberian State Technological University Krasnoyarsk. The visit is coordinated by the Dresden University European Project Centre (EPC) and is funded by the EU Tempus Programme.
Another year will be needed before the new Master's programme is finally introduced at Irkutsk, Ulan-Ude, and Krasnoyarsk, the three universities in the Baikal region.
Journalists are cordially invited to the coordination meeting on November 3rd. Colleagues who are interested in meeting the participants and discussing their new programmes and their experiences in Dresden are asked to register by e-mail.
Author: Martin Morgenstern
Information for journalists:
Prof. Bernd Bilitewski
phone: +49 3501 530030
Katharina Plesse (Project Manager at the EPC)
phone: +49 351 463-42190