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European students get down-to-earth at UNE

July 08, 2004

exchange students.jpgEuropean exchange students are impressed by the practical focus of rural and environmental studies at the University of New England.
Kasper Rossing, a Master’s-degree student from Denmark, who has just completed a six-month exchange program at UNE, said his experience of fieldwork here had been invaluable.

“At home there is more of a gap between the university and the real world,” Kasper said. “I had all the theory, but at UNE I was able to put it into practice in the field.” He said he had also been impressed by the working relationship between UNE people (both staff and students) and landholders. “Students here are actually taught how to get farmers involved,” he observed.
Kasper is one of the first three European Master’s-degree students to study at UNE for six months under a new exchange program funded by the Australian Government and the European Union. They arrived at UNE at the beginning of this year to undertake a range of studies in agriculture, ecology, and wildlife management. These are some of the fields in which UNE has an international reputation, and through which UNE contributes to the exchange program involving four Australian and four European universities. Theprogram is called “Learning through Exchange: Agriculture, Food Systems and
Environment” (LEAFSE).
Kasper and another of the students, Hanne Gundersen, are from Denmark’s Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University. Hanne, who has a particular interest in organic agriculture, said her experience at UNE had made her realise that the “rules” for organic agriculture she had learnt in Europe did not necessarily apply in the very different Australian conditions. “This has broadened my perspective,” she said.
The third student, Louise de Raad, is from the University of Wageningen in The Netherlands. She has been living at UNE’s Newholme Research Station. There, at the foot of Mount Duval, she has been investigating the distribution of four native mammals: koalas, common brushtailed possums, ringtailed possums, and greater gliders. Her data are based on the analysis of animal droppings she collected under 1,250 trees in a well-defined area.
On her return to Europe she will use the data to produce complex distribution maps that will help wildlife managers understand the impact of environmental factors on populations of these animals.
The facilitators of the LEAFSE program at UNE are Professor Acram Taji, Dr Heiko Daniel and Dr Paul Kristiansen. Professor Taji said this first group of European students to visit UNE under the program had contributed to both academic and social life on campus. “Through the units they undertook they were able to exchange views with their fellow students and also the lecturers, making the classroom experience so much richer,” she said. “We now look forward to 2005, when a new cohort of students will spend the first semester at UNE under the LEAFSE program.”
Media contact: Professor Acram Taji, School of Rural Science and
Agriculture, UNE, Armidale (02) 6773 2869 or Jim Scanlan, Public Relations,
UNE, Armidale (02) 6773 3049.
A photograph of (from left) Hanne Gundersen, Louise de Raad and Kasper
Rossing, taken at UNE at the end of their six-month exchange visit, is at:
http://smithserver.une.edu.au/photography/media/hanne,jpg

Posted by Lydia Roberts at July 8, 2004 11:25 AM