Press release: Award for services to German-Chinese cooperation

Nr. 101/2010 - 06.05.2010

Professor Dr. Hiltraud Casper-Hehne receives honorary professorship in China

Professor Dr. Hiltraud Casper-Hehne was awarded an honorary professorship by the Beijing Foreign Studies University on 6 April, 2010. In awarding this high honour, the Chinese University in Beijing paid tribute to the Professor of German Philology and Vice President of the University of Göttingen for her services to cooperation between Germany and China. The certificate was presented at a ceremonial occasion by Professor Dr. Yang Xueyi, head of the University commission of the BFSU and highest representative of the university. The particular focus of interest in Professor Casper-Hehne’s visit to China and South Korea was the signing of a cooperation agreement and talks relating to further extension of the cooperation with partner universities and institutions. Professor Casper-Hehne also led a symposium on intercultural German philology in Seoul.
In his laudatory address, Professor Dr. Wenjian Jia, head of the German philology department of the BFSU, honoured the outstanding services of Professor Casper-Hehne towards intensifying German-Chinese cooperation between the BFSU and the University of Göttingen. He underlined the significance of introducing the innovative German-Chinese masters degree in ‘Intercultural German Philology Germany-China’, which leads to a double diploma. In this framework, “German and Chinese tutors as well as German and Chinese students are able to shape the teaching and didactic process interactively, hand in hand”.

In her words of thanks Professor Casper-Hehne said: “I became acquainted with the Beijing Foreign Studies University as a partner university of Göttingen which places great emphasis on high-quality science and research and excellent tuition for students. In addition the BFSU is among the top Chinese universities offering foreign language studies”. She further pointed out the outstanding cooperation shown during the implementation of the masters degree ‘Intercultural German Philology Germany-China’. As an honorary professor she intends to foster and further intensify the German-Chinese relationship. “Scientific cooperation with China is becoming increasingly important. That is why I will campaign for the successful development of a Centre for Modern East-Asian Studies in Göttingen as well as for the intensification of the German-Chinese contacts in the faculties of our university. Further aims are the establishment of a degree course for Chinese as a foreign language in Göttingen, linked with the introduction of Chinese as a foreign language to the school curriculum in the federal state of Lower Saxony,” states Professor Casper-Hehne.

Hiltraud Casper-Hehne has been working closely with universities in China for more than 25 years. From 1986 until 1988 she taught German philology as lecturer at a college in Shanghai. Since then she has been involved in various cooperation projects with the Peoples Republic of China. In 2004 the philologist was appointed to a professorship at the University of Göttingen and named the University’s representative for China. Additionally, she is founding director of the German Chinese Institute for Intercultural German Philology and Culture-Comparative Studies which the University Göttingen established together with its partner University of Nanjing in 2004. Furthermore, Göttingen University, the BFSU and the University of Nanjing are cooperating to establish Germany's first masters course on ‘Intercultural German Philology Germany-China’ with a double degree. Professor Casper-Hehne is currently playing a central role in the development of a German-Chinese research training group “Cultures in Contact”, in which all three partner universities will contribute to the postgraduate courses.

Since April 2009 Professor Casper-Hehne has been a Vice President of the University Göttingen and in this capacity her responsibilities include the expansion of co-operation with the Peoples Republic of China within Göttingen University’s strategic framework for internationalisation. She is also working on the establishment of a new Centre for Modern East-Asian Studies in Göttingen. At present Professor Casper-Hehne is preparing a China week at the University of Göttingen to take place in July 2010, in which leading figures from the German and Chinese business and science communities will be participating.