Old Boys and Girls come together at German Alumni Gathering
It was a memorable evening spent at the Residence of the German Ambassador, when on 16 December 2011, 94 Malaysian Alumni and 35 guests from various universities and the private sector came together to mingle and network and to renew and strengthen the ties between Germany and Malaysia. 18 German students from the University of Duisburg-Essen, who are currently participating in an exchange programme with the National University of Malaysia, were also invited.
This was the third German Alumni event, jointly organized by the German Embassy, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Goethe-Institute. The invitations were sent out by the DAAD, who is in charge of updating the alumni list. It was much appreciated that some of the participants had made the effort to come from faraway places like Kelantan, Kedah, Perak, Pahang and Johor.
After the welcome address by Ambassador Dr. Guenter Gruber, there were presentations by Dr. Guido Schnieders, Director of DAAD IC Kuala Lumpur, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dieter Schramm, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, University of Duisburg-Essen and Dato’ Prof. Ir. Dr. Dr. Ing. E. h. Sahol Hamid Abu Bakar, Vice-Chancellor/President of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). Dr. Schnieders gave a presentation about the alumni, the DAAD and the Alumniportal Deutschland (APD). Dr. Schramm spoke about the cooperation between science and industry in engineering. He also gave an overview of the new perspectives in German-Malaysian cooperations. Dr. Sahol shared his personal Malaysian-German experiences and expressed his wish to enhance the cooperation between UiTM and German universities.
The presentations were followed by a reception, where the guests had the opportunity to mingle and network. It was a joy to observe people meeting and re-uniting, asking long lost friends: How are you? What are you doing? Where are you working?
It was almost midnight when the evening came to an end. It had been an overall very pleasant experience and the alumni are looking forward to more activities in the future.
