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Sunday May 30th 2021
“I submitted my master’s thesis last week and I am very happy that I have managed to complete the master’s course at the Technical University of Munich soon. It was a total of six wonderful years full of lectures and projects, ambitious fellow students and unforgettable experiences with my family during the holidays. Geotechnics, solid construction, structural maintenance and cross-sectional specialization, steel construction and tunnel construction were the main focuses in the master’s program ”, Anca Băra begins her letter of thanks to Prof. Dr. Radu Băncilă, the former head of the German department for building sciences at the Polytechnic University of Timișoara (UPT). Born in Karlsburg, she was already familiar with the everyday work of a civil engineer thanks to her father and other family members, but she only learned the German language at the German Cultural Center while studying in Timișoara.
The prospect of being accepted into the double degree program and completing her training at a German university with a full scholarship motivated her to achieve good results. This is why Anca was able to complete a master’s degree in Germany after completing her bachelor’s degree and was financially supported by the Bavarian Construction Industry Association, as was the case with her basic studies. The graduate praised her undergraduate studies at the two partner universities for the extensive range of different courses and the opportunity, even if the study is relatively long, to be able to do this in two locations, but also that the grades and degrees are mutually recognized. She studied the first three semesters in Timisoara, the following four in Munich. In 2018 she finished with a double degree and began her master’s degree in Munich that same year. In her experience, construction is no longer a man’s job, even if fewer women are to be found directly on a construction site. On the other hand, the more people in the offices are busy with the execution planning or generally involved in planning activities. Anca’s dream job would be to work in the construction department in order to be able to contribute creatively to the planning of construction projects so that she can see the results after they have been built.
The same thing inspires the 30-year-old Alexandru Maier, whose academic career had a linguistically easier start than that of Anca due to the visit to the German Nikolaus Lenau School in Timisoara and the kindergarten of the same name. For him, it is a passion to see construction plans turned into reality. The course itself exceeded his expectations: “The international relations that this department maintains and that Prof. Băncilă has established are unique in Romania. In addition to the partnership with the Technical University of Munich, from whose double degree program I was able to benefit, these include those for the Polytechnic University in Istanbul, the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, one of the most recognized universities for engineering, as well as the University of Konstanz and Graz University of Technology. This international network has helped us, in particular through student exchanges and interdisciplinary project groups, to think outside the box and to notice the strong influence our industry has around the world ”. Alexandru also did a master’s at the Technical University of Munich after completing his double degree bachelor’s degree and chose to specialize in construction project management, construction law, building physics for solid construction and sustainable construction. However, he sees the advantages of the double degree as far more than just the possibility of a master’s degree at a German university: You have the chance to get to know two quite different academic systems, which makes it more flexible and also immensely promotes intercultural knowledge of people. Potential employers or business partners would perceive these double degree graduates as better prepared, adds Alexandru Maier. He had been hired as a working student and then got a permanent position as a construction project manager after completing his master’s degree. He now works for a British consultancy on major European projects. Nevertheless, his medium-term goal is to be able to contribute his knowledge and previous experience in organizing construction projects and urban planning measures in Romania, i.e. to fill a corresponding position in the Banat in the near future.
Over the years, a tightly networked community of highly qualified professionals has formed around the graduates of the double diploma program of the Timisoara Faculty of Civil Engineering and the Technical University of Munich. The alumni even founded the “Association for the Support of Civil Engineers, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Radu Bancila eV ”. The purpose of the Munich association is, on the one hand, to network the alumni, but also to promote professional, intercultural and interdisciplinary exchange with the new students from Timisoara. The important role that the founder of the German department for civil engineering at the Polytechnic in Timişoara played in accompanying the students in the international exchange programs, in which he even acted as a mentor for some, should be underlined by the name given.
Another member of the association is Mihai Petrov, a native of Timisoara, who decided to study civil engineering in German after graduating from the Lenau School in order to have continuity in education in German and because even then he could well imagine that he would enjoy working in the construction industry. The course confirmed this intuition, he liked the structure and the subjects. When, thanks to his good grades, he was offered the opportunity to take part in the double degree program, he said yes, because he wanted to gain life experience in addition to the academic one. Living further away from home should help him find himself, says Mihai. After the bachelor’s degree and a practical semester, the master followed with a focus on solid construction, building physics, building construction and building process management. Mihai specializes in building construction and has been a project manager for turnkey construction for almost five years. Thanks to the full scholarship, he was able to concentrate on his studies and had a relatively carefree student life. In his opinion, all participants in the double degree program are a success story, “because a lot has been invested in us, in terms of both trust and opportunities and knowledge. Professor Băncilă gave us a lot for our life ”. Studying in Germany particularly helped him to work things out more independently and to deal better with the unforeseen, “which is absolutely necessary in our job”. What counted for the employer was not that he started his studies in Romania or that he had gained international experience, but rather that he had known Mihai and his work since he was a working student in his company.
From the winter semester 2021/2022, there will be fifty places at the UPT’s German Civil Engineering Department, 27 of which are free of charge. The baccalaureate average is used as the admission criterion, regardless of which examinations were taken for it.
Chronology of an academic partnership
Even before the German Civil Engineering Department was founded, academic relationships with the Technical University of Munich (TUM) began to be established in 1990. February 19, 1991 saw the birth of the department with German language of instruction at the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Timişoara (UPT) and October 1, 1991 marked the start of the semester for the first 18 students, eleven of whom celebrated their graduation five years later to have. On June 25, 1993, the dean of the Faculty of Construction signed the partnership with the Technical University of Munich, which was intensified by the German Academic Exchange Service, which promoted a variety of academic initiatives. In 2005, the two universities signed the double diploma agreement for the bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, followed in 2006 by the establishment of a partnership with the Bavarian Building Industry Association to promote the construction industry and its offspring, which has since received the annual double degree scholarships awards the best-performing Bachelor students in the German department. Since 2014, two scholarships have been added annually for the master’s course.
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