Exchanges Really Work

Everybody came: his friends and relations, professors and fellow students. The president of his university gave the speech in his honour. Why? Because Kenyan-born Erick Mule Kitili (23), student of aerospace engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg (HAW Hamburg), had achieved something very special: in November 2007 the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) awarded him the highly coveted prize for outstanding performance by a foreign student. 

Enlarge image German lecture hall (© dpa - Report) “At the beginning of my studies I would never have thought it possible I could ever win such an award,” says Erick Mule Kitili. The first weeks at university had been hard. Although he had a good command of German and quickly made contact with German students, he found the specialist terms very difficult in the first semester. “I wasn’t the only one who was struggling either. Even the German students had problems. Specialist terminology is something you simply have to get your teeth into.”

Erick Mule Kitili didn’t give up. What was the secret of his success? He chose a subject he enjoyed and had all the necessary qualities for studying it. To quote the DAAD: “Mr Kitilia’s performance was above-average in his first and second years, especially in the basic mechanical subjects – structural engineering, the theory of material strength, stability in lightweight design, and finite elements. He was one of the first students to get a 0.7 grade.”

The young Kenyan’s award is also the result of the productive German-African academic exchange system. Another student from Africa – computer scientist Wehndah Asaha Asong from Cameroon – had won the highly sought-after DAAD prize in 2006. Academic ties between Germany and Africa are thriving more than ever before. 

Over 13,000 African students are registered at general universities in Germany, while another 10,000 are studying at universities of applied sciences (Fachhochschulen) – and the number is growing. Top of the list is Cameroon with 3,400 students. There are more Africans studying at German universities than South and North Americans. “Germany is a first-class location for research. The equipment used at the universities, in the institutes and laboratories, is always state-of-the-art – and the professors are world-class,” says Johnsons Oluwasola Agbede from Nigeria, who is conducting research at Halle-Wittenberg University on how to improve the efficiency of laying hens. Agbede could also have studied at an American university, but he decided to come to Germany because of the unique environment of hard-working, highly motivated scientists he found here.

Marshall Azeke had a similar experience. “Germany is an important industrialized country where a young person can learn a lot. Here, the research institutes are really well-equipped, and foreign scientists are made extremely welcome.” The young biologist is researching ways of reducing the phosphorus content of cultivated vegetables at the Federal Research Centre for Nutrition and Food (BfEL) in Bonn/Karlsruhe. 

Azeke came to the Rhineland with the help of a grant from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. “The valuable experience I am gathering here,” he says, “will also be very useful to me back home.” Azeke’s home is Kenya – something he has in common with Erick Mule Kitili at HAW Hamburg.

The DAAD prizewinner was born in the capital Nairobi. His parents are academics and were able to give Erick and his older brother and sister a good education. The elder brother works as a banker, Erick’s sister is also studying in Germany: digital media at the Bremen University of Applied Sciences. Erick himself initially toyed with the idea of studying in the United States. But his uncle, who did a degree in engineering at a German university in the 1970s, persuaded his nephew to follow in his footsteps. He came to Germany in 2003 and took a nine-month intensive German course, followed by a further year at a Studienkolleg (preparatory college) in Hamburg. In the winter semester he finally began studying aerospace engineering at HAW in Hamburg. Kitili impressed his professors very early on with his keen perception and his passion for the subject.

This example of the Kenyan high-flyer shows how well the integration of African students in everyday German student life works. At Paul Sudeck Haus, one of Hamburg Student Services’ biggest halls of residence, Kitili is as well-known and popular among his housemates as he is among the budding aircraft engineers. 

For a year now, he has been working as a court interpreter for fellow countrymen who prefer to speak Swahili, Kenya’s official language, rather than English. And during the university vacations he works as a “camp counsellor”, looking after and teaching German children and young people at an international language school.

“Mr. Kitili is an exceptional person,” explains Reinhold Billstein, head of the International Students’ Office at HAW Hamburg. “He is a role model for all the other students” – irrespective of whether they come from Germany or abroad. According to Billstein, German universities should now aim to become even more attractive to foreign students. “We must find ways of offering as many students as possible optimum chances of education and integration, especially students from Africa.” The first step could be to set up an introductory semester to help people prepare for studying. Further measures should then follow aimed at improving their knowledge of German and promoting their social and cultural integration.

Dr. Ahmed Debez welcomes this initiative. The biologist from Tunisia first came to Germany five years ago with a DAAD scholarship. At that time he was already impressed by the high level of research in Germany and the friendly, open atmosphere at the universities. 

Now, as a postdoc student at the Institute of Botany in Hanover, he is engaged in research on alternative crop plants. “It is a very important subject in many parts of Africa. I am grateful to be able to work on this question at the highest level in Hanover,” says Debez. Germany has become his second home in the meantime, he says. He hopes many more of his fellow countrymen will have a chance to research and study in Germany in future. “It’s wonderful here – apart from the cold winters,” says Debez.