Coordination meeting under the Erasmus+ EMINReM project at the Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg (Germany)

From May 2 to 6, 2023, a coordination meeting of the partners of the Erasmus+ project ERASMUS-EDU-2022-CBHE-STRAND-2-101082621 “Master’s program in eco-mining and innovative management of natural resources” in the direction of “Capacity development of higher education” was held in the city of Freiberg (Germany). The meeting took place in one of the most famous higher education institutions in East Germany – the Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg. Representatives of 9 partner universities from 5 countries took part in the meeting: Germany, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. DonNTU was represented by Iryna Shvets, Vice-rector for International Relations, and Yevgen Zbykovskyy, Head of the Department of Chemical Technologies and Chemical Machine engineering. In addition to the representatives of DonNTU, teams from the State University “Zhytomyr Polytechnic” headed by the rector Viktor Yevdokimov and the Dnipro University of Technology was represented by the first vice-rector Artem Pavlychenko and prof. Oleksii Lozhnikov took part in the study visit from Ukraine. On behalf of the host university, the director of the Institute of Mining and Underground Construction, Karsten Drebenstedt, congratulated all the meeting participants.

The program of the coordination meeting was very rich and productive. On the first day, all participants presented their educational institutions and the project team. Apart from three Ukrainian higher education institutions, representatives of Kutahya Dumlupinar University (Kütahya, Turkey), Satbayev University (Almaty, Kazakhstan), Karaganda State Technical University (Karaganda, Kazakhstan), Tashkent State Technical University named after Islam Karimov (Tashkent, Uzbekistan), Navoi State University of Mining and Technologies (Navoi, Uzbekistan) also arrived in Freiberg.

On the second day of work, the participants of the coordination meeting listened and discussed the presentations of the European partners from the Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg and the Kutahya University of Dumlupinar, which were devoted to the development of curricula for masters in the specialty “Mining” with elements of environmental engineering and innovative management of natural resources. At the end of the second day, a discussion session was held, where the most pressing issues related to the implementation of the EMINReM project were discussed. 

The visit to Germany was not limited to official events. The participants of meeting had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the city of Freiberg and its unique mineral museum Terra Mineralia. Freiberg is an ancient mountain town that was founded in 1186 near silver deposits. Later, the Bergakademie Freiberg was founded here, which became one of the centers of technical education. At one time, Mykhailo Lomonosov studied mining in this famous academy.

The mineral museum, which has samples from all over the world, is the best in Europe. The exposition of the museum is quite large, and the collection of minerals is rich and very informative. The museum occupies a large castle on several floors. And when you find out that only a small part of the minerals is presented in the exhibition, the rest is kept in storage – you get lost in the scale of the collection. Minerals are collected from all over the world, perfectly preserved and selected by region – from Africa to the Far East. In general, the museum and its collection are very unique. The Bergakademie Freiberg and its scientists took an active part in its creation, and for decades they replenished the collection. Without the participation of the Mining Academy, it would not be possible to create, preserve and increase such a collection in the city and in Germany in general. Anyone interested in minerals should definitely visit this Museum.

The main result of the first visit to Freiberg under the EMINReM project was the establishment of new perspective relations with partners, including European universities, under the new Erasmus+ international project, and the creation of opportunities for further professional development in the field of environmental engineering and innovative management of natural resources.