BA First Semesters Visit Senate Reception for International Students

Once a year the Senate of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg invites all foreign first semester students to a reception at the venerable Rathaus (town hall). This time around a record-breaking 520 invitations were issued. The record reflects Hamburg’s continuous internationalization, not only – but also – in the field of higher education.

At this time, Hamburg’s universities and universities of applied sciences offer an impressive 49 programmes in English language, among them Brand Academy’s International Brand Communication M.A. and International Brand Management M.A. In total, nearly 12.000 international students spent their winter term 2016/17 in Hamburg and this number is bound to increase again for the ongoing winter term 2017/18.

Accordingly, Katharina Fegebank, Senator for Science, Research and Equality focused her traditional keynote speech on Hamburg’s growing attractiveness for international students given the increasing number and diversity of study programmes and the continuously improving options for obtaining free study counselling and related advice.

Once again, a sizable multicultural group of Brand Academy students from across all study programmes chose to attend the event. While all admired the grandeur of the town hall’s Großer Festsaal (great hall of celebration), three entered into a conversation with Senator Fegebank after her speech (and found her both approachable and likeable), while others took the opportunity to engage some of the many English-speaking students for an exchange about their experiences.

The memorable evening concluded with a dinner invitation for all attending BA students, courtesy of Brand Academy President Prof. Dr. h.c. Shan Fan.