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After the defeat of the Taliban regime and the establishment of the new government in Afghanistan, the oldest academic cooperation of the IEE – that with the University of Kabul – saw its revival in 2002. Read more about the achievements, the components and the fascinating story behind a partnership that goes back to the very roots of the Institute and which spreads nowadays beyond Kabul to the universities of Balkh (Mazar-i'-Sharif), Herat, Nangarhar (Jalalabad), Khost, Kandahar and Bamyan.

Photo: Faculty Day at Balkh University, 2005 (photo: RUB)

Overview

With financial support of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the World Bank and the Ministry of Innovation, Science, Research and Technology (MIWFT) of the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the IEE is supporting the rehabilitation of Afghan Faculties of Management and Economics through a range of interlinked activities. Since 2002, the following results have been achieved:

• Curriculum Development: In order to improve the standard of academic training in Management and Economics in Afghanistan, a new uniform Bachelor (BSc) curriculum was developed in cooperation with the RUB’s Faculty of Management and Economics and is in the process of being implemented throughout the country

• Production of Teaching & Learning Materials: In order to support the implementation of the new curriculum with adequate teaching and learning materials, eleven textbooks (equivalent to the subjects of the new curriculum) have been produced in English and Dari since 2004 and made available to the partner faculties and other relevant institutions in Afghanistan

• Bachelor training program for Afghan lecturers: In order to upgrade the standard of academic teaching in Management and Economics, between 2004 and 2009 43 lecturers from seven Afghan partner faculties have completed an intensive Bachelor training program at the Faculty of Management and Economics of the RUB on the subjects of the new Afghan curriculum

• Master-level training for Afghan lecturers: Between 2006 and 2010, twenty-two Afghan lecturers from four partner faculties have successfully completed a Masters program at the RUB (17 graduated with an MSc in Management and Economics and five with an MA degree in Development Management).

Photo: H.E. President Karzai signing the University's Golden Book; Prof. Dr. Elmar Weiler, Rector of RUB (photo: RUB).

Perspectives

It is planned to continue with the Bachelor training and MSc programs until the partner faculties are equipped with a sufficient number of well-trained staff to implement the new standard BSc curriculum in Afghanistan. Moreover, the Afghan BSc in Management and Economics shall become formally accredited in the future. This will ensure international compatibility and transferability of the program. It will also allow Afghan students to get admission to international master programs until such programs will—eventually—become available in their own country. To address Afghanistan’s research needs related to management and economics, the IEE is planning to admit the best Afghan Master graduates into international PhD programs.

Apart from further promoting “software” (by qualifying lecturers), the IEE will also continue to provide appropriate “hardware” to support teaching and learning at its Afghan partner faculties. Comprehensive textbooks in Dari and English relating to the subjects of the BSc curriculum have already been made available to the Afghan partner universities since 2004. In addition, the IEE is currently preparing the translation of updated textbooks into Pashto and will soon be publishing a professional, multilingual dictionary of Management and Economics. The dictionary will consist of two volumes: volume 1 will be in Dari, English and German; the second volume will cover Pashto, English and German. In the future, the dictionary will also be made available online.

The latest project to support the Afghan partner faculties of the RUB is the eCampus Afghanistan, an internet-based learning management system. With funds from NATO’s “Science for Peace and Security Program” and technical support of the eLearning department at the RUB ,“RUBeL,” all lecturers and students at the Afghan partner faculties will thus get online access to course materials, interactive communication tools and readings for the new BSc in Management and Economics in English, Dari and Pashto.

Visit of the Minister of Higher Education of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, H.E. Dr. Mohammad Azam Dadfar, at the RUB in Winter 2008 (Ruhr-Universität Bochum: Presse-Info (Link)

Photo (from left to right): Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Loewenstein, H.E. Minister Dr. Mohammad Azam Dadfar, Dr. Sami Noor, Prof. Dr. Elmar Weiler
(photo: Meike Drießen)

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