The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) supports the “Higher Education Dialogue with the Muslim World” programme using funds provided by the Federal Foreign Office. 

According to the motto “Dialogue through Cooperation”, these university partnership projects focus on cultural dialogue with the Muslim world, which is to be stimulated and sustainably strengthened through scientific cooperation based on a common academic interest.

Background

Since 2006, the Higher Education Dialogue Programme has been funding cooperation projects between German higher education institutions and their partner institutions in the Muslim world - based on the experience that cooperation in partnership, supported by common scientific interests, is a stable basis for cultural dialogue.

In this programme, cultural understanding and awareness-raising are a main goal of the DAAD funding, equal to the academic goals, which can be measured by the proven quality criteria of teaching and research. The programme, formerly known as “German-Arab/Iranian University Dialogue”, was expanded in 2012 to include cooperations with all non-European member countries of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

Programme objectives

Programme objective 1: Partner universities offer curricula/teaching modules/courses that correspond to the local context and the state of the art in academia

Programme objective 2: Students and (junior) academics have acquired further qualifications and intercultural skills within the framework of technical and methodological cooperation (taking gender equality into account)

Programme objective 3: Regional teaching and research networks with higher education institutions from one or more partner countries have been established (with the involvement of non-university partners)

Programme objective 4: Partner universities maintain networks with non-university partners

In the long term, the Higher Education Dialogue Programme contributes to strengthening intercultural dialogue between higher education institutions in Germany and the Muslim world; it also contributes to the sustainable strengthening of the quality of research and teaching at the partner universities as well as to the sustainable networking of higher education institutions and non-university partners in the target regions and with Germany.

 

Funded by