University of Koblenz appoints Franz-W. Aumund Honorary Senator

KOBLENZ UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCE / FRANZ-W.-AUMUND-STIFTUNG

Present at the appointment ceremony: Rebecca Mühe (Scholarship holder), Johannes Jehn (Scholarship holder), Honorary Senator Franz-Walter Aumund, University President Prof. Dr. Kristian Bosselmann-Cyran, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Detlev Borstell, Prof. Dr. Dietmar Holz (Vice President for Research) and Prof. Dr. Robert Pandorf (Dean of the Faculty of Engineering)

For the first time in its history the Koblenz University of Applied Sciences Senate has appointed a friend and supporter of the university honorary senator. Franz‑Walter Aumund, owner of the Aumund Group of companies with headquarters in Rheinberg near Cologne and founder of the eponymous foundation has served in considerable measure over the past years the financial and ideological support of students at the Koblenz University. Through the commitment of the entrepreneur each year outstanding students of the Technical Engineering Department can finance their studies at the Koblenz University of Applied Sciences by means of a scholarship.

Franz-W. Aumund founded the Franz-W. Aumund Foundation in 2006 within the donors’ association for German enterprises which dedicates itself to supporting high achieving successor generations in engineering and natural sciences. “Successful companies need – particularly in globalised markets – a business environment which makes success possible. A school and universities system which educates successor staff members forms an integral part of this, satisfying international requirements and holding their own in the face of international competition”, says Aumund, explaining his commitment. “To secure such quality cannot simply be a matter of the state, private commitment is also needed here.”

In 2008 the Koblenz University of Applied Sciences, along with the Technical University of Berlin, was accepted onto the sponsorship scheme of the Franz-W. Aumund Foundation through the contact of Franz-Walter Aumund to Prof. Dr.-Ing. Detlev Borstell, a former research and development chief at Aumund. Since then the discipline of machine building can award four new annual scholarships which offer 680 € monthly. On average 15 students from the Koblenz University of Applied Sciences are simultaneously supported by the foundation, the funding volume amounting to around 120 000 € per annum. The high proportion of female scholarships is noteworthy: Of the 23 students to date, five are women (22 %). According to the Koblenz University this proportion lies well above the general proportion of female students in the discipline of machine building.

Over and above the financial assistance, the doors of the Aumund company and all worldwide subsidiaries are open to scholarship winners and all other (machine building) students at the Koblenz University of Applied Sciences. Since 2009 nine theses were completed in the Aumund Group, five graduates were scholarship winners of the foundation. “The supervision of students by the technical departmentsof Aumund is excellent,” says Borstell. As the scholarship continues to be paid for a study trip abroad for up to one term, stays abroad were made possible for scholarship winners in Spain, France, Great Britain, Finland, Egypt, India and China. “The scholarship program thus contributes also significantly to the internationalization efforts of the University in Koblenz,” explains Borstell.

“Owing to this really extraordinary commitment the study conditions for a group of students in the field of engineering are significantly improved”, according to Prof. Dr. Kristian Bosselmann-Cyran, President of the Koblenz University of Applied Sciences, who was very pleased with the decision of the Senate to appoint Franz-Walter Aumund the first honorary senator of the University.

Franz-Walter Aumund has inherited closeness to universities and social commitment in the truest sense of the word: His grandfather Heinrich Aumund was Professor of Conveying Technology in the 1920’s in Danzig and Berlin and has authored a number of standard reference works on conveying technology. In addition he also played a considerable role in several reforms of the German university landscape in the Weimar Republic.

Heinrich Aumund founded his company initially as an engineering firm for patent marketing in Berlin and moved it after the Second World War to Duisburg. Today theAumund Group is internationally active in the field of transport and storage techniques for solids with locations in Germany, the UK, China, Brazil, USA, India, France, Russia, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and a worldwide network of agents.