Munich University of Applied Sciences

Munich University of Applied Sciences (MUAS)

Munich University of Applied Sciences (MUAS) is a German University of Applied Sciences with 14 departments in the areas of technology, economics, social studies and design, providing teaching in over 70 study courses. With 17,800 students and almost 2000 professors, lecturers and staff, MUAS is the largest university of this type in Bavaria and the second largest in Germany. Regarding its international dimension, MUAS offers international study and double degree programmes with other HEIs from Europe and abroad in bilateral or multilateral cooperation and 3 international Summer Schools. It also has over 250 exchange partnerships with universities from all over the world, is member in various international networks and a partner institution of German universities abroad (UAS7). The range of study programmes covers natural sciences, social sciences click, architecture, arts and design, and Business Administration.

The University has strong links with industry and the world of work. Two annual events, led by the Contact Person who will participate in this Project, drive these relationships. The Annual Symposium for SMEs has, since 2008, provided a living link between academia and practitioners from the thriving German “Mittelstand”. The Annual Munich Entrepreneurship Day focuses on newly formed and emerging enterprises and provides an information exchange, together with a thriving consultancy forum. Students from MUAS regularly take up internships and compulsory semester long placements at firms with links to the University. In 2011 the University’s Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship was named as one of the first three Entrepreneurial Universities in Germany by the country’s Ministry of Commerce and Energy.

Role of the University in this project

MUAS will be the joint leader of WP1, drawing on its extensive experience of working with large and small enterprises. It will also participate in the activities of other WPs, especially WPs 2 and 4, and contribute to the preparation of case studies of Kosovar companies. It will host the visit by senior staff of Kosovar universities and the training visit by Placement Officers (WP1) as well as visits to prepare training material for the training courses for enterprises (WP4). It will provide time for professors to participate in seminars and workshops of the project in Kosovo and to teach the training courses to enterprises. It will participate in, and contribute to, the Dissemination Workshops (WP7) and the work of the internal and external evaluators of the quality of the project (WP6). MUAS will support the Coordinator by maintaining good records and retaining the documents related to the project (WP8).

Staff involved in the project:

Paul Sudnik

Paul Sudnik is the contact person for the project at MUAS where he is a Professor. He has a long association through teaching with Staffordshire University (where he is also a Visiting Professor) and has over 15 years of both commercial and educational experience in the Western Balkans – having lived in the region for 4 of those years. A Textile Engineer by background, his first career was in senior executive roles with major multi-national companies – his second is in educational leadership. Most recently he was the Founding Director of a college of higher professional education in Mitrovica, Kosovo. Paul has published on career transition in Macedonia and on entrepreneurial start ups in Kosovo.

Claudia Eckstaller

Claudia Eckstaller is Vice Dean for Cooperation with Industry and an expert in the field of HRM who is a key driver of MUAS links with local Mittelstand companies – she is thus highly experienced in building lasting partnerships between academia and commerce. Her research interests cover personal marketing as an aspect of career building. She has published on work-life balance and on key competence development for career success. She has recently contributed to the development of The German Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning (http://www.deutscherqualifikationsrahmen.de/de/). She has also spoken at conferences on the role of women in the world of work. With expertise in aspects of HR management central to this project Claudia is well placed to contribute to the development of links between Kosovar Universities and Industry.

Klaus Sailer

Klaus Sailer has been Professor of Entrepreneurship at MUAS since 2006 and is Director of the renowned Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship. A physicist by training, Klaus acquired significant experience in project management with international companies before going on to establish a tech company in the communications sector which, as CEO, he successfully established in the market place. He has since gone on to be a serial entrepreneur in his own right whilst successfully leading the entrepreneurship thrust of MUAS though his inspirational teaching and assiduous development of contacts with industry to the benefit of students.

Contact Person: Paul Sudnik

Web site of a partner institution :   www.hm.edu