Bharati Vidyapeeth ties up with Cologne University

With a view to shape holistic environment managers by expanding the students’ vision about local, regional and global issues, Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Environment Education and Research (BVIEER) has collaborated with Cologne University of Germany for a student exchange project with a difference.

It is the first institute in India recognised by Cologne University for its international masters in environment science (IMES) course, under which the exchange will take place.

Unlike other student exchange programmes, students of IMES from Cologne University will study in Pune for a whole academic term, and will get credit from BVIEER. This has been incorporated as a part of their curriculum at Cologne University.

The first two students from Germany and Japan have joined the masters’ course at the department in November, while two students from the department will be going to Cologne University in April under the programme.

The director of BVIEER, Erach Bharucha said, “Adopting an inter-disciplinary approach and training the students as holistic environment managers is the need of time. In the changing scenario, we need experts in environment technology as well as management to look at local, regional and global issues.”

The future environmentalists cannot afford to be restricted to a particular field like pollution. They have to have a larger vision to counter global problems on local level and take good local practices to global level, said Bharucha.

He said leadership skills too need to be nurtured among the students so that they have the ability to initiate environmental projects. These needs will be addressed through the exchange programme.

The IMES is an inter-disciplinary environmental study programme covering different faculties and was established at the University of Cologne in 2003. They have students from universities across the world for the IMES.

Takuya Inoue from Japan and Greta Link from Germany, who are at the BVIEER under the exchange programme will be studying natural resources management, applied microbiology and environment management techniques.

Takuya said, “India has a huge natural forest area, so it is a good place for learning environment techniques. I am here to learn conservation techniques so that I can go back and work in Japan.”

Two students from the BVIEER, who will be going to Germany in April, will work on water management and environment education specifically.

BVIEER assistant professor Kranti Yardi  said, “It will help students understand the best management practices in India and abroad. Also, some local and global issues are interconnected and need to be tackled on both levels. This understanding can come only through such exchange programmes.”