The EU Commission’s European Universities Initiative is designed to promote excellence, innovation and inclusion in higher education across Europe. 15 German universities are partners in the higher education networks selected in the first pilot call for proposals, among them Freie Universität Berlin and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. The DAAD is moreover supporting the German higher education institutions with an accompanying national programme in the pilot phase.
The keyword “Third Mission” is doing the rounds. The argument is that, in addition to research and teaching, universities have a social responsibility for society. The German Academic Exchange Service or DAAD is currently investigating how universities can take this responsibility into account in their internationalisation initiatives. General Secretary Dr. Dorothea Rüland and Director of Studies Uwe Brandenburg, PhD., talk about the contents and aims of the study.
Initiated in 2015 and receiving ten million euros worth of European Union funding up until the beginning of 2019, the project SHARE aims to support harmonisation of the Southeast Asian higher education area – a second project phase is conceivable. An interview with DAAD experts Michael Hörig, Head of the Strategic Planning Division, and Marc Wilde, Head of the Section for Higher Education Management in Development Cooperation.
On the occasion of the ten-year anniversary of the Centres of African Excellence initiative by the Federal Foreign Office and the DAAD, a large network meeting was held in Berlin. The South African Minister of Higher Education Naledi Pandor spoke of the ten Centres of Excellence with different orientations as a “foundation of enormous benefit”. The centres make it possible to train the future leaders of society, academia and business.
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