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Participants of the Bachelor training with Afghan Deputy Minister for Higher Education Prof. Kheshkai (3rd from left), NRW Science Minister Prof. Pinkwart (center) and IEE Managing Director Prof. Löwenstein (left) (photo: RUB).
One of the top priorities in the cooperation between the IEE and the Faculties of Management and Economics at Afghan Universities is the stabilization of Bachelor Programs in Economics and Business Administration. After having concentrated on the University of Kabul beginning in 2002, the continued financial support offered by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and, since 2007, the Northrhine-Westphalian Science Ministry helped to swiftly extend the academic cooperation to other Afghan universities in the following years. The overall target of this cooperation is to assist the partner faculties in Afghanistan in their efforts to rehabilitate learning and teaching services and to integrate themselves into the global campus. For this purpose, the IEE in cooperation with the colleagues from Afghanistan and the RUB Faculty of Economics and Business Administration created a set of activities which aim at restructuring the bachelor curriculum, train Afghan lecturers and to provide them and their students with appropriate teaching and learning materials in English and in the national languages. RUB Cooperating Chairs
Partner Faculties in Afghanistan
- Kabul (since mid of the 1960ies, revitalised in 2002)
- Balkh
 (since 2004)
- Herat (since 2004)
- Nangarhar (since 2004)
- Kandahar (since 2008)
- Khost (since (2008)
- Bamyan (since 2009)
- Faryab (since 2010)
- Jawzjan (since 2010)
- Paktia (since 2011)
Targets
- Availability of an up-to-date, uniform BSc-curriculum at all partner faculties
- Backing of the new curriculum by the production of teaching and learning material (Dari, Pashto & English) and online support (eCampus Afghanistan)
- Expanding the literature base at the cooperating faculties
- Enabling the cooperating faculties to teach the new BSc-curriculum
- Preparation of lecturers for admission to Master-programs
- International accreditation of Afghan Bachelor degrees in Management and Economics.
Results
- New uniform 3-years BSc-Program in Management and Economics available at all partner faculties (since mid-2004
- Between 2004 and 2012, 79 young Afghan lecturers participated in the Bachelor Upgrading Program and passed close to 1000 months of BSc-oriented training at RUB
- Complete set of textbooks (11 books each in English, Dari and Pashto) for the BSc-program handed over to Afghan partners
- Teaching and learning of the BSc curriculum at the partner faculties supported through an internet-based learning platform (eCampus Afghanistan).
- A quadrilingual dictionary for management and economics has been published and is available in a printed version and online.
- 22 lecturers (17 with a MSc in Management and Economics, 5 with a MA in Development Management) graduated with a Masters' degree from RUB
- 30 lecturers, after qualifying themselves through successful completion of the Bachelor Upgrading Program, have started the MSc program in Management and Economics at RUB in August 2011
Future Perspectives
- Preparing young female graduates from the partner faculties through the Bachelor upgrading program (May 2012-June 2013) to become future lecturers (May 2012-June 2013)
- Graduation of the second intake of Afghan Economics lecturers from the MSc Program in Management and Economics at the RUB in August 2013
- Offering Master programs at RUB for all remaining graduates of the Bachelor upgrading program
- Accreditation of the uniform BSc Program at the Afghan partner faculties by an internationally acknowledged higher education accreditation agency
- Assisting the partner faculties in implementing quality control
- Initiating and promoting research in Afghanistan
- Future faculty days
- Admission of the best Master graduates into PhD Programs at RUB
Workshop and Conference - "Strengthening Higher Education in Management and Economics in Afghanistan" - November 2008
The results achieved in recent years in the long-standing cooperation between RUB and the Afghan Ministry of Education were evaluated during a workshop and conferenc hosted by the IEE on November 19 - 21, 2008. The two-day workshop was attended by the Rectors of the Universities of Kabul, Balkh, Herat, Nangarhar and Khost and the Deans of their Faculties of Economics and Management.
Workshop Participants
The guests from Afghanistan together with Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Löwenstein and Dr. Sami Noor (photo: Damian Gorczany).
Together with Afghan student professors currently engaged in the Lecturer Training and/or the MSc Program at RUB, representatives of the DAAD and the World Bank as the main sponsors and the staff of the IEE, the guests from Afghanistan explored also future perspectives in German-Afghan academic cooperation. At the end of the two-day workshop the Rectors of the Universities of Kabul, Balkh, Herat, Nangarhar and Khost and the Deans of their Faculties of Economics and Managementcommitted to implement the unified BSc curriculum in full with the beginning of the year 2010. In addition, they endorsed the proposal put forward by Prof. Loewenstein and the IEE staff to apply for formal accreditation of the BSc Program in Management and Economics.
These and other decisions reached during the two-day workshop were presented to a larger audience on Friday, 21 November 2008 at a conference hosted by the IEE and RUB under the auspices of HE Prof. Dr. Maliha Zulfacar, the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to Germany.
Panel Discussion at the Conference
Panelists (from left to right): Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Löwenstein, Dr. Alexander Kupfer (DAAD), HE Prof. Dr. Maliha Zulfacar, Prof. Dr. Hamidullah Amin (Rector Kabul University); Dr. Naim Assad (Rector Herat University) and Abdul Haj Sofizada (SHEP World Bank)
For more detailed information about the workshop and conference proceedings, decisions and participants, please take a look at the conference report published in the IEE News No. 9 (pp. 10-12):
IEE News No. 9, January 2009
Country-wide Academic Training for Economic and Social Development of Afghanistan – Cooperation of Afghanistan and Germany in Management and Economics - 14 July 2009
The Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Dadfar, Prof. Dr. Löwenstein and the rectors of the universities of Kabul, Herat, Balkh, Nangarhar, Kandahar and Khost invited the press to report on the achievements and perspectives of academic cooperation between Afghan universities and the Ruhr-University Bochum in Management and Economics. At the same occasion a far reaching MoU (s. left - click to enlarge) was signed by all stakeholders which officially was put into operation by the Afghan Government in autumn 2009.
We are indebted to the German Foreign Office, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Ministry of Innovation, Research, Sciene and Technology and for the continous support of the academic cooperation between RUB and the Afghan faculties of Economics and Business Administration.
The following reports / posters provide further information on the Bachelor Training in Management and Economics at RUB:
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