Shenzhen Technology University (SZTU) and Landshut University of Applied Sciences (LUAS), a German university, signed an agreement and established a cooperative relationship through an online platform Tuesday, according to the official WeChat account of SZTU.

University presidents Ruan Shuangchen of SZTU and Fritz Poernbacher of LUAS attended a ceremony, at which they signed the contract on behalf of both parties.

At the signing ceremony, Ruan recalled his first visit to LUAS in 2016, which inspired him on how to build a university of applied technology. Afterward, he introduced SZTU’s rapid development in the past five years, including campus construction and student population. He sincerely invited President Poernbacher to pay a second visit to SZTU. Poernbacher visited SZTU in 2017 as the dean of the School of Electrical Engineering and Industrial Engineering and was then employed as a visiting professor in SZTU.

Liu Liwen, Human Resources Department director of SZTU, said that President Poernbacher is “an old friend” of SZTU since its establishment, and that long-term friendship creates a solid foundation for cooperation.

Maria Mehlhaff, International Department director of LUAS, mentioned that many of their professors and students are interested in going to China for exchange studies after the pandemic.

LUAS was established in 1978. It has six colleges of business management, electrical engineering, computer science, mechanical engineering, social work, and interdisciplinary research. LUAS has nearly 5,000 students. In the latest annual assessment of the Higher Education Center (CHE), a German organization dedicated to higher education reform and best known publicly for publishing university rankings, the electrical engineering, information technology and mechanical manufacturing majors of LUAS are among the top majors in Germany.

SZTU has actively carried out cooperation with well-known overseas universities, research institutes and enterprises. So far, it has signed agreements with more than 60 of them.