International study course in Communications Engineering between the University of Applied Science Lubeck, Germany, and Milwaukee School of Engineering, USA

The increasing tendency to create global structures forces international elements into education. Although exchange programmes for individuals have been in existence for a long time, the exchange of complete classes of students for a long time period and in a structured fashion is not very common, particularly for students in engineering. Our aim at the University of Applied Science Lubeck (FHL) was to create such a course. We did not want to lengthen the duration of study (four years) and we wanted participants to graduate with two engineering degrees. As our partner we found Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) in Wisconsin, USA. Together we developed a curriculum for communications engineering, allowing a group of American and German students jointly to participate over a period of two years. This is to be seen against the background of different basic engineering education over the first two years of their domestic studies. By the end of the course, the participants leave with a German Dipl-Ing and an American BSc. To this point, all participants have successfully completed the course. Moreover, their chances in the job market are excellent, everywhere. Based on these promising experiences we are now prepared to open the study course to other interested partners.