The cooperation of Sumy national agrarian university (SNAU) with University of Applied Sciences Weihenstephan-Triesdorf (HSWT) started in 1995. Prof. Dr. Henning Willeke and Prof. Dr. Herbert Ströbel were the contact persons from the German university. The first stage of cooperation was the organization of agricultural internship for SNAU students on the farms in Germany. In 1996, 3 students of our university, having put their best foot forward during the internship, became the first ones from Ukraine, who were invited to study at HSWT on a degree programme “Agricultural Management”. Since December 2001, SNAU has become an official partner of the DAAD Export Training Courses project, signing an agreement of cooperation with four partner universities: HSWT, NUBiP of Ukraine, Novosibirsk SAU, Kazakhstan NAU.
The purpose of that cooperation was:
- launch of the international master degree programme – Master of Business Administration in Agriculture (MBA) – at four partner universities of Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan in the language of the country concerned, as well as in German;
- creation of a single network of parallel master programmes in agricultural management with mutual recognition of educational and examination grades according to the Bologna Agreement;
- organization of an active exchange of trainees, students and teaching staff primarily within the framework of the development of the master programme “Agricultural Management”;
- award of double diplomas and diplomas of international standard;
- ensuring long-term and multifaceted cooperation in education and research;
- involvement of other agrarian universities and colleges.
Under that agreement, in June 2002, SNAU officially launched a master degree programme “Agricultural Management”, whereby learning is conducted in German and Ukrainian, and since 2015 also in English.
On November 29th, 2019, SNAU joined the international consortium of 24 universities from 12 countries, signing the general Memorandum about their intentions, as well as the newly expanded agreement was signed about the overall realization of the double degree study programs with the German partner which allowed to deepen the integration process of SNAU to the international educational space. These agreements include the following points:
- award of double degree diplomas for students of SNAU and HSWT;
- further development of the activity of international net along with current master courses of MBA;
- inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all.
Since the beginning of cooperation, 235 students have undergone internship, 101 students have finished their studies at HSWT, 28 students and teachers have successfully obtained the assistance program. Since the very beginning, the number of students of the international master program has reached 928 persons. In 2002-2020 years, there were 20 international seminars at SNAU. Above 90 representatives from 10 universities of Ukraine, Germany, Russia, Kazakhstan and Georgia have participated in these seminars. SNAU traditionally held annual seminars and webinars with foreign lecturers for MBA students.
Implementation of the international degree program at SNAU promotes the employment of graduates and increases opportunities to implement the acquired knowledge and skills. The program’s graduates currently work as consultants and top managers in joint ventures and representative offices of German, Austrian and Swiss companies, in the field of domestic agribusiness, teachers and scientists at leading European and Ukrainian universities, etc.
The master program was accredited on June 22nd, 2006, by the Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine, and German Academic Exchange Service in April 2009.
In November 2016, this program was successfully accredited by the European accreditation agency – ACQUIN.In May 2023, this program was reaccredited. International accreditation aim is to confirm the full compliance of the content and quality of the educational process in SNAU with European educational standards.
