International Deans Course (IDC)

The International Deans’ Course (IDC) is aimed at newly elected deans and vice-deans from Africa and Southeast Asia. The IDC consists of three parts: 10 days of further training in Germany, two or three participant-organised conferences in the home countries after a few months, an in-depth event as the third and final part after a few more months in a country of origin of the participants. The event was first aimed at deans and heads of department from East African universities in 2007/2008. In 2008/2009, the IDC was offered to the same target group from Southeast Asian universities. African and Asian participant cohorts followed in the same rhythm.

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK), Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences and the Centre for Higher Education Development jointly organise the International Deans’ Course. This intensive course is part of the DIES (“Dialogue on Innovative Higher Education Strategies”) programme and has been coordinated and financed by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK) and funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) since 2001.

The programme was developed with representatives from Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia) and Moi University (Kenya), among others. It was further developed for Southeast Asia with representatives from the Philippine Normal University, Manila, the Bandung Institute of Technology and Universitas Gadjah Mada in Indonesia.

Topics are: Developments in Higher Education Systems, Strategy Development, Higher Education Systems, Financial Governance, Bologna Process, Quality Assurance, Leadership, Project Management, Conflict Management, Faculty Management, Change Management, PR for Faculties, Human Resource Management, Research Management, The Entrepreneurial Faculty, Internationalisation, personal action plans, Networking.

Each participant developed a personal project action plan based on what they had learnt, followed it up during the IDC and reported on the results.