Charlene Harripersadth and Silindile Gumede, from the Durban University of Technology (DUT), are the first two South African students to attend the University of Huelva (UHU). Both students have joined our School of Engineering (ETSI) during the winter semester 2018/19, under the auspices of Erasmus+ KA107 Higher Education Mobility between the Programme and Partner Countries.
The mobility project between UHU and DUT was awarded during the last academic course of 2017/18, thanks to the close collaboration between the UHU International Relations Office and the ETSI Deputy Director for Internationalization. The agreement extends into 2018/19, and includes the mobility for students and staff between both institutions for the very first time. Last year we counted on the presence of Executive Dean, Professor Theo Andrew, from the DUT Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, who participated in our International Week 2018. Moreover, Professor Andrew delivered a speech for both the teaching and research staff at the UHU Department of Chemical Engineering, Chemical Physics and Materials Science by invitation of Professor Moisés García. Ms. Cecile Garçon, International Relations and Social Cohesion Project Officer at the DUT Faculty of Engineering has also visited us.
With regards to the students, they have attended several courses corresponding to the Teaching in Foreign Language Programme, promoted by the Vice Chancellor of International Relations, and Spanish classes offered by our Foreign Languages Service. Furthermore, they are carrying out their Master’s Thesis within the UHU Master in Chemical Engineering, with the defense being scheduled for mid-February. Their research, initiated in DUT and led by Professor Paul Musonge from the Department of Chemical Engineering, deals with the removal of heavy metals from aqueous medium through biosorption (Charlene) and the adsorption by nanoclays (Silindile). The experimental work conducted at UHU is being supervised in close collaboration by Professors Ana Sayago and Juan Urbano, from the Department of Chemistry “Professor José Carlos Vílchez”, and Professor Moisés García, from the Department of Chemical Engineering, Chemical Physics and Materials Science.
Regarding a second mobility agreement based on the same Erasmus+ KA107 Programme, the ETSI has hosted three students from Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), who are Tulonga Hidipo, Rodney Uetuuonga Mbai and Kalkidan Hailemichael Tesema. Tulonga and Rodney are Bachelor’s students, who have attended several courses at ETSI, followed by Spanish classes. They have also developed their Bachelor’s Thesis under the supervision of Professors Cristina Pérez-Carral Lorenzo and Eva Corral Pazos de Provens from the UHU Department of Agroforestry Sciences, and Professor Miguel Vallejo Orti from the NUST Geospatial Science and Technology Department. Kalkidan is a Master’s student who has also studied the Spanish language, and has completed her Master’s Thesis dissertation with the expert advice of Professors Luis Felipe Pérez Romero and Fernando Flores Gil, from the UHU Department of Agroforestry Sciences, and Professor Ibo Zimmermann, from the NUST Agriculture and Natural Resources Sciences Department.
In addition, both the doctoral and teaching staff mobility from UHU to Namibia-NUST have taken place successfully during 2018.
Both the University of Huelva and the School of Engineering are working with enthusiasm and uniting efforts in order to strengthen these fruitful relationships.