Centres of African Excellence
By setting up “Centres of Excellence” at African universities, the DAAD promotes the education of highly skilled professionals and future leaders in Sub-Saharan Africa, while enhancing academic teaching, research, and cooperation on crucial aspects of sustainable development.
Background
Strong higher education institutions are key to training skilled professionals and building excellent research capacites. They also play a pivotal role in developing locally grounded solutions to global challenges. The DAAD’s “Centres of African Excellence” programme supports African universities in enhancing the quality and relevance of higher education, strengthening research capacities, and expanding North-South(-South) cooperation. This approach helps position African academic institutions as strong partners for German universities and enables them to take on a more active role in global knowledge production. By fostering networks with employers and stakeholders from politics, business, academia, and civil society, the Centres of Excellence enhance their visibility, relevance, and regional impact. Strategic components aimed at sustainability and practical application are embedded in the programme design to ensure long-lasting impact. The “Centres of African Excellence” programme is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office (AA).
Programme objectives
At the level of short- and medium-term outcomes, a core objective of the programme is to provide outstanding talents from Sub-Saharan Africa with high-quality, practice-oriented education and effective integration into the labour market. At the same time, the programme aims to strengthen teaching and supervision capacities, expand research potential, and build networks with relevant stakeholders.
In terms of long-term impacts, the programme contributes to:
- qualifying individuals for key positions and enabling them to act as multipliers,
- transferring up-to-date research findings into policy, business, and civil society,
- ensuring the sustainable and competitive operation of the Centres of Excellence, while strengthening human and structural research capacities at the participating universities,
- promoting the implementation of the German government’s Africa policy guidelines and the 2030 Agenda.
To achieve these goals, the Centres of Excellence can draw on a wide portfolio of eligible funding measures – ranging from collaborative efforts to improve (digital) teaching, training, and qualification programmes to the provision of scholarships, the organisation of events, initiatives to enhance research infrastructure, and the promotion of international mobility for study, research, and teaching visits.
