bbw University of Applied Sciences: celebrating 10 years of excellence

The bbw University of Applied Sciences celebrated its founding - 10 years ago today- and other important milestones in its development with a birthday cake and reception attended by students, teaching staff and university employees. On 12 January 2017, the university administration and management of the bbw Akademie, which runs the university, witnessed an important milestone in the young history of this university of applied science in Berlin and Brandenburg.

'Ten years of bbw University of Applied Sciences is just the beginning', remarked Chancellor Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gebhard Hafer in his opening speech. He shared his reasons for celebrating with the audience and thanked the initiators and founding partners for their courage to establish the bbw University of Applied Sciences as a private institution for higher education with strong regional business ties and with a high level of industry specialisation, despite having a few reservations. 'Today we can look back at 10 successful years. We currently have 1,175 students; we have received very good assessments of the university by the students attending the institution; we have a low rate of students who drop out of their programmes; and we have an above-average rate of students who have immediate employment after graduation.'

The Managing Director of the Holding Society of bbw Akademie, Dr. Andreas Forner, paid tribute to 'everything that we have achieved in the past 10 years'. In his congratulatory speech he remembered the special commitment that partner firms and our partner university, HTW University of Applied Sciences in Berlin have made to our institution as well as the special dedication of the university's professors and employees. During the speech, he highlighted the achievements of the university's chancellor, Jürgen Weiß, who made the conception process and the founding of the university his mission from the very fist day he became involved in the project. According to Forner, 'Today bbw University of Applied Sciences has established a profile with a special industry and praxis orientation. Congratulations to all of the people involved with the school for turning it into a university with students from more than 40 different countries and for making the attractive Bachelor's and Master's programmes increasingly more international, which is an aspect that also addresses the mega-trend of digitalization.' In his opinion, digitalization naturally poses a big challenge for bbw University of Applied Sciences in the future, but Forner stressed that it is 'not an end in itself'. What is decisive is 'preparing students for the new digital workplace environment with suitable concepts for their studies. That is the biggest task facing everyone.' After his speech he presented the head of the university with a voucher for a smartboard.

The university of applied sciences gave the school the nicest birthday present, a buddy bear, which is supposed to be given a special design made by the winner of an internal competition for ideas, which will be held during the next four weeks. The winner with the best design will be awarded a voucher. An artist will be commissioned with painting the design.

The actual ceremony for the jubilee will take place at an exam party, which will be held in the Berlin conference hotel Estrel on 25 April 2017. It will be attended by graduates, their families and friends, long-term associates of our university, partner companies and prestigious guests from politics, business and academia.