First graduates of the trinational UniGR Master programme Border Studies

Two years of intensive and sometimes strenuous study in three countries and at four universities (Metz, Luxembourg, Saarbrücken and Kaiserslautern) lie behind them - two years which have proved rewarding in many respects. With their studies, the students did not only obtain a trinational degree, but also the best conditions for employment in organizations and companies working across borders. At the time of the graduation ceremony, many graduates already had an employment contract in the field of cross-border cooperation in their pocket, some of the laureates already working in their new jobs and thus having had to travel especially for the graduation ceremony. They arehowever used to travelling by the experienceof their course of studies!On 6 march 2020, the graduates of the first cohort of the UniGR Master's program in Border Studies recently received their diplomas at Villa Europa in Saarbrücken, the seat of the German-French University (DFH-UFA) and the University of the Greater Region (UniGR). Congratulations!

In the first year, they studied together and in parallel at the universities of Luxembourg and Lorraine and in the second year in Saarbrücken and Kaiserlautern, the study phase abroad being supported by a mobility grant by the DFH-UFA. Every day, they had to immerse themselves in four different university systems and cultures and come to terms with the surprises that such a complex course of study always brings, not to mention the three languages of instruction: German, French and English. In addition to the so-called hard skills of geosciences, linguistics and cultural studies border studies, they also acquired soft skills in this way, i.e. the sensitivity and adaptability required for cross-border cooperation. In this respect, the success of the graduates on the labour market is not surprising.

The importance of this new course of study was also underlined by the fact that the president of Saarland University and UniGR, Professor Manfred Schmitt, representatives of the DFH-UFA and Dr. Hanno Thewes of the European Ministry of the Saarland participated in the graduation ceremony. Ttrinational Master Border Studies, unique in its kind, decisively contributes to the development and better international visibility of the European Higher Education Area in the Greater Region. This is proven by the fact that the 15 students in the third cohort of study come from no less than eight countries: the four states of the Greater Region, the United Kingdom, Cameroon, Nigeria and Chile.

More information and contact: http://master.borderstudies.org