H.E. Ambassador Rolf Schulze
who all received generous German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
scholarships, are currently enrolled at the AIT School of Engineering
and Technology and AIT School of Environment, Resources and
Development.Ambassador Schulze and Ms. Annette Sévery, Counsellor, Press and
Cultural Affairs, welcomed a large AIT delegation of students and
officials to the embassy led by Vice President for Academic Affairs
Professor Sivanappan Kumar.“It is my great pleasure to hand over this year’s total of 32 DAAD
scholarships to recipients from Southeast Asian countries,” Ambassador
Schulze said, also welcoming eight recipients from Thailand’s Mahidol
Unversity, and Kasetsart University.
Known in the German language as Deutscher Akademischer
Austauschdienst, DAAD is the country’s largest support organization in
the field of international academic co-operation. It awards
competitive, merit-based grants for use toward study and research in
Germany and at partner institutions of higher education in other
countries.
Under AIT-Germany partnership from 1972-2002, a total of 1261 students
graduated through German support. Since 2007, DAAD has awarded 49
scholarships to recipients from CLMV countries to study at AIT.
Prof. Kumar expressed his extreme gratitude on behalf of AIT to the
Government of German and DAAD for its continuous and generous support
to the students and the Institute.
Also on hand for the ceremony, Johannes Görbert, Director of DAAD
Information Center, Bangkok, said a special aspect of the program for
Germany is its “beyond bilateral” approach for connecting to third
party nations. For AIT, scholarship awardees included one Lao national,
twelve Vietnamese, seven Myanmar citizens and four from Cambodia.
The ambassador said Germany’s premise for financially supporting so
many bright young scholars is to address important regional issues,
such as tropical medicine, agriculture, and sustainable development,
and that AIT is a good fit for DAAD because of its “broad range of
engineering and science fields.”
Calling on the AIT recipients to be active in their research fields,
Ambassador Schulze said the young researchers and academics included in
the program have an important role to play in the astonishing
development of the region. “ASEAN is developing rapidly,” he said,
emphasizing Germany’s keen interest in fostering scientific cooperation
with the region.
Congratulating the students, Mr. Görbert added that DAAD aims to
connect all alumni of the program not only on science, engineering and
development issues, but also German culture. “A successful career
awaits you all,” Ambassador Schulze told the beaming young faces from
AIT, as he asked all to stay in touch with Germany and German
universities in the future.
Prof. Kumar remarked that AIT was especially pleased to work with DAAD
as its philosophy is in line with AIT’s mission to educate
professionals who contribute to the development of their home
countries. “AIT and DAAD expect a lot from you,” he told the students.
“Make us both proud.”
Mr. Tenzin Rabgyal, Admissions and Scholarships Coordinator, AIT, and
Mr. Shawn Kelly, Senior Media Specialist, Media and Communications
Unit, also attended the function.
