Development co-operation

DIES Archive

06/2009: First DIES Alumni meeting in Africa

   From 15 to 18 June 2009 the first DIES training course alumni meeting took place in Nairobi, Kenya. The participants came from Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. All participants had already attended DIES Training courses, supported by DAAD, before. The aim of the network meeting was the joint development of self-organised events on continuing education for staff members of higher education institutions within Africa. During these events six national Alumni groups passed their knowledge of higher education management on in practice-oriented workshops. The trainers met at cross-national seminars between the workshops. The success story of such course structure was demonstrated by DAAD-Alumna Alicia Vergas from Costa Rica. In Nairobi she presented the GUCAL Programme from Central America, which was jointly organised by Central American DIES Alumni. Both the African DIES-Alumni Network and the Central American Alumni Network are supported by the University of Kassel.  

05/2009: Regional Course on Faculty Management for Higher Education Managers from South East Asia successfully concluded

   From 16 to 20 March 2009 about 22 deans and vice deans from Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam took part in the closing module of the "International Deans’ Course South East Asia” in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

The seminar has been organised in cooperation with the Gadjah Mada University (GMU), the University of Applied Sciences Osnabrueck, the Centre for Higher Education Development (CHE) and regional Higher Education Management experts. The event was officially opened from the Indonesian side by Vice Rector Professor Ainun Naim (GMU) and DAAD-alumna Dr. Illah Saillah of the Ministry of Education. Professor Supachai Yavaprabas represented the South East Asian Ministers of Education Organization and informed about regional activities for building a South East Asian Higher Education sector.

03/2009: 15 years UNISTAFF – Behind the „Secret of Witzenhausen“

To learn from each other across borders: The University Management training programme UNISTAFF celebrates this year its fifteenth anniversary at the Institute for socio-cultural Studies at the University of Kassel. On this occasion the most successful alumni presented their projects from 02 to 05 March 2009 at the "UNISTAFF International Forum” in Witzenhausen.
Since 1994 around 20 selected university staff members from developing countries have participated yearly from Mai till Mid of July at the university management training programme UNISTAFF held at the University of Kassel in Witzenhausen. Topics of the course are generally organisation development, didactics and research management. UNISTAFF is part of the DIES programme for the improvement of Higher Education Management in developing countries.
The hallmark of the UNISTAFF programme is the development of an own university management project during the course. Either professional training for university lecturers in Kenya or curriculum development in Honduras – the individual project drafts of the course participants will be developed and elaborated together with colleagues and experts. This particular combination of project development and direct and indirect learning constitutes the "secret of Witzenhausen”, which serves for over half of the participants as a career stepping stone. This result has been established through the current evaluation of the UNISTAFF programme by the Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institute of the University of Freiburg.
The success of the programme is indisputable: Accordingly, in East Africa, Central America and South East Asia several active alumni networks have already emerged. This exchange of experiences is an important element in order to realize in praxis the during the course developed change projects at the particular universities. An excellent example is the UNISTAFF alumni Francisco Alarcón who works currently as Vice Secretary-General of the Central-American University Council in Guatemala. In 1996 he elaborated in Witzenhausen on a UNISTAFF project for the introduction of a regional quality assurance system in Central America – and has implemented it apparently with great success.

01/2009: Establishment of a common Higher Education Area in East Africa – DIES Training for East African Quality Assurance Officers

Quality Assurance at East African universities was in the focus of a DIES training programme, which took place from 25.-31. January 2009 in Nairobi, Kenya. A group of around 50 founding directors of quality assurance centres from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ruanda and Burundi participated in the training for self evaluation of study programmes.
The training was arranged in the framework of the DIES project for quality assurance at universities in East Africa, which is organised by the DAAD in cooperation with the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA), the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK) and the University of Oldenburg. The main objective is the establishment of a common quality assurance system in East Africa, in order to create gradually a common Higher Education Area based on the concept of Bologna.

12/2008: Proposal Writing Course in Uganda

In Entebbe, Uganda the first part of the DIES trainings course "Proposal Writing for Research Projects” was held from 08 to 12 December 2008. The 30 participants came from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The first part of the programme deals with the basic guidelines for proposal writing by means of interactive lectures and practical exercises. In the second course phase the finalization and revision of research proposals will be covered.

11/2008: DIES events in Vietnam

The first international meeting of the EU-Asia Higher Education Platform (EAHEP) took place in Hanoi on 25 and 26 November 2008 covering the topic "Autonomy, Governance and Management in Higher Education in Asia and Europe”. The DAAD establishes this platform in a joint action with EUA and Nuffic in the framework of an EuropeAid project. Leading university managers and experts from Asia and Europe came on the occasion of the launch event. The main topics of the conference were extensively discussed in panels and various working groups and important contacts have been established.

 On 27 and 28 November 2008 an interim meeting of the International Deans’ Course (IDC) has been held in Ho Chi Minh City. The IDC has been organised for the second time in cooperation with the University of Applied Science Osnabrueck, the Center for Higher Education Development, the German Rectors’ Conference and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

The special characteristic of the didactic structure of the IDC is that the participants organise between the beginning course phase in Germany and the final stage of the course in the particular region, autonomously an interim meeting with each other in order to discuss the implementation of the Personal Action Plans with experts and to foster the multiplication effect beyond their faculties. For the meeting in Ho Chi Minh City deans and experts from Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Germany have attended the meeting after the above mentioned conference.

10/2008: DAAD supports the building of a joint higher education area in East Africa

A day after signing a Memorandum of Understanding between the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) und DAAD to build an international quality assurance system in East Africa, the secretary general of the IUCEA and Christoph Hansert, the responsible head of section of the DAAD, presented their joint efforts as an innovative form of cooperation in a European Forum. Furthermore, the regional office for Africa in Nairobi, the project quality management of the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK)  and the University Oldenburg as well as the internationally renowned quality assurance expert Dr. Ton Vroeijenstijn are involved.

At the Policy Seminar of the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) "From aid to partnership: Enhancing development through education" together they gave a presentation with the title "From Technical Assistance to Joint Capacity Development. The IUCEA – DAAD Partnership for Reforming Quality Assurance in East African Higher Education" in Brussels on 17 October and engaged into a discussion with the almost 100 participants. Besides higher education experts from all across Europe, also representatives of the EU Commission, from European development organizations and the sister organizations of the DAAD such as the British Council, Nuffic (Netherlands) or SIU (Norway) were present.

• Africa Sub-Sahara
• Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania
• Central and Eastern Europe
• Latin America
• North America
• Northern Africa and the Middle East
• Western Europe