On April 15, the International College jointly founded by Hefei University(HFU) and Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, Germany, was officially inaugurated. Wang Qingxian, Governor of Anhui Province, and Olaf Lies, Minister-President of Lower Saxony, Germany,jointly unveiled the College.
The International College is HFU’s first non-independent legal entity Sino-foreign cooperative education institution, as well as the second such institution established in Anhui Province. It is scheduled to commence its first enrollment in 2026, offering three undergraduate programs: Information and Computational Science, Logistics Management, and Vehicle Engineering.
Focusing on such key industrial directions as new energy vehicles, next-generation information technology, and intelligent logistics, through cross-boundary integration, resource sharing, and systematic innovation, the College will align with national strategies and market needs to build an open platform for emerging engineering talent cultivation with multi-disciplinary and cross-college collaboration, which will serve the university-local authority and university-enterprise collaborations and the national strategies of building China into a strong country in engineering education and manufacturing.
Before the inauguration ceremony, a celebration marking the 20th anniversary of the sister-city relationship between Hefei and Osnabrück was held at HFU’s Sino-German Friendship Forest. Vice Governor Sun Yong and Minister-President Olaf Lies visited the friendship tree planted jointly during Lies’ visit in 2017. The tree now stands tall and thriving, as a testament to the enduring friendship between Anhui Province and Lower Saxony, and reflects HFU’s journey toward internationalization.
Since 1984, Anhui Province and Lower Saxony, Germany, have maintained friendly provincial-state relations,engaging in in-depth exchanges in such fields as economy, science and technology, and culture, yielding fruitful results. Over the past 42 years, HFU has actively served as a bridge, developing a number of groundbreaking initiatives in Sino-German higher education cooperation. It has established eight modern industrial colleges featuring Sino-German cooperation, such as the Volkswagen College and the Continental College, forming a distinctive educational framework that integrates industry, education, and urban development.
This international cooperation marks an important breakthrough for the University in aligning engineering qualifications and educational standards with international norms, enhancing HFU’s internationalization of engineering education, and improving its quality and effectiveness of international talent cultivation.
