Gwenaëlle Guillerme, head of an international organisation bringing together leading technical and engineering universities from around the world, met with Wrocław Tech authorities. The talks concerned, among other things, cooperation on extending the dual degree offer for men and women at our university.

The T.I.M.E. organisation (Top International Managers in Engineering Association) is a network of leading engineering universities founded in Paris in 1989. Its activities aim, among other things, to make it easier for students to obtain master's degrees under double and joint degree agreements, to support joint doctorates and to increase the use of e-learning in engineering education.

- Our main objective is to create more double degree agreements, i.e. joint study programmes. This is an offer for ambitious second-degree students who study at two universities and later receive diplomas from both, significantly increasing their competitiveness on the labour market,’ stressed Professor Arkadiusz Wójs, rector of Wrocław University of Science and Technology.

Currently, 58 universities from 25 countries belong to the T.I.M.E. network, including universities from the European Union countries, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Japan and Canada. The Wrocław University of Science and Technology has been a member of the organisation since 2004 and the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków since 2009, and they are the only Polish universities in this body.

- It is extremely nice to be back at the Wrocław Tech. We value your international activities and hope that this cooperation will continue to develop so well,’ said Gwenaëlle Guillerme. - We are keen to see more and more people - both students and researchers - going abroad. In the current geopolitical situation, it is particularly important that young engineers are well educated, but also - and just as importantly - open-minded, familiar with foreign cultures, able to work in diverse teams and adapt to changing realities.

During the two-day visit, the T.I.M.E secretary-general met with university authorities and also spoke to the vice-deans for cooperation and education and the faculty Erasmus coordinators. The main topic was the procedures related to the creation of joint study programmes.

- We are already implementing double degree agreements with leading technical universities from Germany, France, Italy and Finland, but we want to develop this form of cooperation also with universities from outside Europe,' added Prof. Katarzyna Chojnacka, Vice-Rector for External Relations.

Membership of the T.I.M.E. network makes it possible to find partners to form consortia applying for funding from EU-funded projects, such as joint Erasmus Mundus Masters programmes. Such projects are currently underway at the Faculties of Civil and Mechanical Engineering (Ecole Centrale in Lille is a partner). In turn, LUT University of Finland is one of the partners in the EMJM SBBE (Sustainable Biomass and Bioproducts Engineering) project at the Faculty of Chemistry - the first international Erasmus Mundus Masters programme coordinated by a Polish university.

At Wrocław University of Science and Technology, the coordination of double degrees is handled by Ewa Mroczek from the Centre for International Relations. The advisory group of the T.I.M.E. Association's board of directors from 2023 includes Grzegorz Lesiuk, Ph.D., professor at the university and plenipotentiary of the dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering for European cooperation programmes.