To this end, this Wednesday both parties signed a memorandum of understanding at the university campus. Beforehand, Oliver Blume, Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG, gave a speech to around 200 students on the future of the sports car.
"Promoting high-end engineering and technical excellence in a wide variety of markets has been very successful for us. It is therefore important to us to intensify our relationships with institutions that are as established and prestigious as Tongji University", said Blume on signing the memorandum. "By doing so we are boosting the involvement of Porsche in China and expanding the existing cooperation."
Professor Zhang Lijun, Dean of the School of Automotive Studies at Tongji University, underlines the importance of the cooperation: "The even closer collaboration with Porsche has benefits for the education we provide in the technical faculties. At the same time, it enables us to cultivate the necessary exchange with industry." Tongji University was founded in 1907 in Shanghai by the German government, and is today one of China's oldest and most prestigious universities, with over 35,000 students.
Porsche and Tongji University launched a Brand Academy
Up to now, the driving force behind the partnership with Tongji University has been the subsidiary Porsche Engineering. It was set up to enable the engineering company and the School of Automotive Studies to exchange information and ideas on topics such as science, research, theory, testing equipment and practice. In November 2018 they jointly organised their first expert conference, welcoming 80 of the top decision-makers to the Porsche Experience Centre Shanghai to discuss the latest developments in chassis technology.
In September 2018, Porsche and Tongji University also launched a Brand Academy. It is located in the Experience Centre, and its purpose is to educate specialists from the automotive industry about brand management and strategy. Other cooperation projects are dedicated to researching urbanisation trends in China or parking solutions in megacities. The sports car manufacturer and the University want to expand their common fields of activity in the future. The cooperation will also benefit the students: in addition to attractive internships within Porsche AG and its subsidiaries worldwide, the sports car manufacturer has also presented the possibility of supporting the School of Automotive Studies' Formula Student Team. The aim here, of course, is to inspire the prospective experts to help build the sports car of the future. Many alumni of Tongji University are already enjoying very successful careers at Porsche.
