A successful partnership TU Braunschweig and the University of Rhode Island celebrate their 30th anniversary

Thirty years ago, a remarkable history of cooperation and exchange began between the University of Rhode Island (URI) and the Technical University of Braunschweig (TU Braunschweig). What started as a cooperation agreement has developed into one of the most successful and sustainable partnerships between a German and an American university. On this anniversary, we look back on the development of this unique strategic partnership and take a look into the future.

At the beginning of June 2025, the two universities celebrated the 30th anniversary of their cooperation with a ceremony in Rhode Island. President Angela Ittel travelled to Rhode Island together with other representatives of TU Braunschweig to take part in the celebrations: “During our visit, we honoured and celebrated 30 years of successful cooperation – a strategic partnership that has proven itself at all levels. URI and TU Braunschweig have built close and trusting relationships through the International Engineering Programme and a dual degree programme. Our scientists jointly supervise dissertations, carry out cooperative research projects and organise seminars together. International cooperation is the key to successful innovation. We look back on this partnership with pride and will continue to expand it in the future.”

Successful project for German-American student mobility

The roots of the partnership between TU Braunschweig and the University of Rhode Island (URI) lie in engineering. At the end of the 1980s, John Grandin, Professor of German at URI, and Hermann Viets, then Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at URI, launched a programme originally planned to run for five years, the International Engineering Programme (IEP). An article about this programme in the science newspaper ‘The Chronicle of Higher Education’ in the early 1990s caught the attention of Bernd Rebe, then President of the TU Braunschweig. An invitation to Grandin and Viets to visit the TU Braunschweig followed shortly afterwards.

This initial contact developed into a friendly relationship that led to regular mutual visits. The first student exchange took place in 1995. Two years later, both universities signed a cooperation agreement that enabled TU students to obtain a US and a German master’s degree as part of a double degree programme. In return, bachelor’s students from URI spend an exchange year in Braunschweig. The cooperation between URI and TU Braunschweig is now considered the most successful German-American university exchange programme in Germany – almost 1,000 students have taken part in this exchange over the past three decades. Many other universities have since followed this model, which was the first of its kind between a German and an American university, and established similar partnerships.

Joint projects in all faculties

The dual degree programme with URI now exists in the fields of civil engineering, environmental engineering, bioengineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and industrial engineering. However, the partnership between the two universities is not limited to the joint double degree. There is a joint PhD programme, and the universities also collaborate on numerous joint research projects spanning all faculties at TU Braunschweig. The decades of cooperation between the two universities culminated in June 2023 with the signing of an agreement on cooperation as strategic partners.

Outlook for the future

In the coming years, the partnership in the field of research will be systematically expanded. An important instrument for this is the Matching Funds programme, in which both universities are investing equally to initiate and promote new collaborations, research projects and joint publications. The aim of the programme is to strengthen cooperation within the universities in the long term and to attract new fields of expertise and actors for collaboration. There is great potential for cooperation, particularly in the fields of ocean engineering, sustainability, quantum and nanotechnology, and (teacher) education.

Here’s to the next 30 years!