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Education
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Higher Education: Training Tomorrow's Specialists and Managers
Education, science and research are essential for a country's social and economic development. Universities and colleges train the specialists and managers who will initiate development and change processes in their countries. Research delivers the relevant know-know; innovations from research and development create new job opportunities.
That is why the promotion of higher education is one of the priority areas of German development cooperation in the education sector. Commitments totalling some 34 million euros were made to that end in 2007.
Delivering quality teaching
In many developing countries, higher education has undergone major expansion in the past on account of strong demand. Often, however, quality and management failed to keep pace with the growing number of students. German development cooperation therefore focuses on improving the efficiency of existing universities and colleges.
Transnational academic networks can increase the effectiveness of research in smaller countries. Regional partnerships – especially where international networking takes place – are especially effective in this context.
The natural sciences, agriculture, environmental protection, engineering, economics and social sciences are examples of disciplines that are especially relevant to development. In its promotion of the higher education sector, German development cooperation focuses especially on these academic disciplines. Germany supports universities in curriculum development and research planning. In order to make research findings relevant to business and industry, the service and advisory role of universities and colleges is being reinforced. This also helps to improve their financial position.
Expanding access to higher education
Worldwide, the number of enrolments in higher education increased from 93 million in 1999 to 144 million in 2006. Three quarters of this growth occurred in developing countries, where the number of students rose from 47 to 85 million. German development cooperation measures support university access for talented people from all demographic groups, especially for women, for example through the provision of scholarships.
Promoting academic and university partnerships and cooperation
Academic exchange encourages more intensive foreign trade and intercultural relations between countries. Through partnerships and cooperation, the scientific and technological divide between developing countries and the industrialised nations can be overcome in the long term. Germany supports training for experts in development-relevant fields of study and the integration of partner countries into global knowledge networks.
Three organisations in Germany are responsible for promoting academic and university partnerships and cooperation:
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The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) supports a large number of students from partner countries every year – for example by means of scholarships – to enable them to undertake postgraduate work.
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The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH) supports highly qualified academics engaged in original research.
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The German Research Foundation (DFG) provides funding for academics from developing countries who are undertaking research projects jointly with German colleagues at German institutions.
The supraregional "Cooperation Between Universities" project is also being implemented within the context of German development cooperation. It supports regional networks of universities in Latin America and southern Africa, particularly in the area of quality management and public-private partnerships (PPPs). In addition, within the context of Technical Development, highly qualified young academics and managers from developing countries receive scholarships to spend some time at the Bonn International Graduate School for Development Research (BIGS-DR) run by the Centre for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn.
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