“Strengthening the Role of Universities in Developing Countries – The Contribution of Leadership Capacity Building Initiatives“, Berlin, 27-28 November 2017

Zwei Männer schütteln sich vor einem DIES-Plakat die Hand und lächeln

More than 130 higher education management experts from industrialised and developing countries came together on 27 – 28 November in Berlin to discuss common and specific challenges surrounding adequate strategies and the training of the responsible staff.

The conference “Strengthening the Role of Universities in Developing Countries – The Contribution of Leadership Capacity Building Initiatives“ took place in the framework of the DIES programme (Dialogue on Innovative Higher Education Strategies), which is jointly coordinated by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) and the HRK (German Rectors’ Conference) and was held on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the International Deans’ Course (IDC) Africa/Southeast Asia. The IDC Africa/Southeast Asia is organised in the frame of the DIES programme by the DAAD and the HRK together with the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, the Centre for Higher Education and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation as well as other partner universities in Germany and the target regions.

“The DIES programme has been organising the dialogue between universities from different regions of the world for many years and, in doing so, involves people at different function levels in university management. Even though the challenges in a university landscape generally marked by growth, competition and dynamic change are similar, management must develop and implement specifically adapted strategies. DIES encourages this by funding mutual learning across regional borders,“

said Professor Dr Margret Wintermantel, President of the DAAD.

In the course of the conference a DIES study by the Boston College Center for International Higher Education has been presented. It examined around fifty training programmes worldwide for university managers from developing countries and revealed that virtually all regions of the world are either providers or target countries of training courses for university management. Many of the programmes were first created after the year 2000. However, participant numbers are still relatively low and the programmes differ greatly in their content and target groups.

10 Jahre IDC