Since 2005, DIES has supported more than 7,000 participants in training courses and projects. After these events, the participants are DIES alumni and share their acquired knowledge with universities in their home countries and regions, thus multiplying the impact at a national level.

Furthermore, alumni from various DIES training courses in Central America and Mexico, East Africa, and Indonesia have formed regional networks. In some cases, DIES alumni organise professional development courses on university management topics in their home countries. These are adapted to local needs and selectively supported by the DAAD.

Programme objectives

Tailor-made programmes for DIES alumni are intended to promote networking at national and regional levels and enhance the positive effect of DIES training courses, which are only available for a limited number of participants. In particular, DIES alumni may receive support to actively multiply the impact of university management topics at their home universities and share their newly gained knowledge in their home countries. National and regional alumni networks are established with the aim of developing sustainable structures to facilitate an exchange of experience between the participants of various DIES training courses.

Currently funded measures and participating partners

National Multiplication Trainings (NMT):

In the frame of the National Multiplication Trainings (NMT), the University of Potsdam has been offering support since 2017 for DIES alumni around the world in running independent, self-designed peer-to-peer training measures and multiplication activities.

All training components ought to address those issues and challenges that are most relevant in the respective regional / national context. The measures are designed and implemented individually by the DIES alumni in question.

Results

Central America and Mexico:

DIES alumni from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama have joined together to form the GUCAL XXI network (Grupo Universitario para la Calidad en América Latina en el siglo XXI). Through DIES alumni, GUCAL XXI has opened up to include further university managers in the region who wish to further develop and enhance the quality of university management at their universities and in their countries.

East Africa:

The DIES alumni network in East Africa (Regional East African DIES Multiplication Alumni Network REAL) passes on knowledge and experience of university management gained in DIES training courses, thus contributing to the development of universities in the region. REAL offers alumni from Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda a forum to share ideas and organise professional development courses of their own.

Indonesia:

In 2005, more than 60 DIES alumni from Indonesia founded the INDOSTAFF network (derived from UNISTAFF, the name of the DIES training course attended by most of these alumni). Since then, this network has regularly held professional development courses or workshops at a national level. These deal with university management topics such as quality assurance, leadership, curriculum development, research management, or alumni surveys.

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