Afghan German Higher Education Platform: History | Afghan German Higher Education Platform

History

Introduction

With the fall of the Afghan government on August 15, 2021, most public institutions and structures in Afghanistan have collapsed, including the higher education sector.

International cooperation in the field of academic education has been discontinued. Since then, many university members such as professors, research assistants, employees and students who had connections to Germany and other countries have left the country.

German Universities supported Afghanistan for the last 20 years

The German Federal Foreign Office, DAAD and German universities have supported the following areas Freiberger education in Afghanistan since 2002:

Universities of Würzburg, Bonn and Cologne: Natural Sciences
University of Jena: German as a foreign languageTU Berlin: •⁠ ⁠Information Technology and Computer Science
•⁠ ⁠University of Freiburg: Medicine
•⁠ ⁠University of Marburg: Pharmacy
•⁠ ⁠University of Potsdam: Administrative Sciences
•⁠ ⁠University of Bochum: Economics
•⁠ ⁠University of Freiberg: Mining

Relevance

Considering the current situation of higher education in Afghanistan, an Afghan-German online higher education platform can provide a way to meet the current needs of Afghan institutions of higher education and maintain the 20 years of close cooperation between Afghanistan and Germany in the field of higher education.

Goals

Give Afghan university members who are now in Germany the opportunity to support their universities in Afghanistan online. Organize and realize university its own space on the platform. Facilitate subject-specific communication and knowledge transfer . German universities can advise and support the Afghan universities . Support projects by students or scientists from Afghanistan online. Organize and realize online events

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AGHEP colaborates with national and international organizations in a variety of ways. These partnerships allow aghep to address the various requirements and concerns of the Afghan universities.

In the field of information technology and computer science (IT&CS), a number of projects were successfully implemented in Afghanistan under the leadership of Dr. Nazir Peroz, former head of the Center for International and Intercultural Communication (ZiiK) at TU Berlin. From 2002 to early 2021 a large number of computer scientists and IT experts were educated with funding from the Germany Federal Foreign Office and supported by DAAD. This included specialized trainings for IT administrators, as well as academic education for MSc and PhD students. Furthermore, TU Berlin set up data centers at five Afghan universities (Kabul 2003, Herat 2009, Nangahar 2011, Balkh 2012 and Qandahar 2014). More than 30,000 young people received basic and advanced training there. Activities also included setting up PC labs and IT libraries, as well as organizing international IT conferences.

With the support of TU Berlin, the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education set up an IT department to coordinate the IT projects. In 2007, the first computer science faculty of Afghanistan was opened at Herat University Herat. For the first time, young people could enroll in a computer science bachelor's study course. At the same time, TU Berlin initiated a computer science Master's program for Afghan lecturers, who returned to their home universities after graduating to work as lecturers or as IT experts at Afghan public institutions.

However, after the Taliban took power in August 2021, this success story came to an end. On the same day, Dr. Peroz contacted the TU Berlin administration and discussed the upcoming difficulties of the IT&CS graduates in Afghanistan. In order to enable these young people to travel to Germany as guest scientists, the TU Berlin leadership kindly provided funds as an emergency measure to support Afghan CS MSc graduates and invite them as guest scientists. More than 60 graduates could be provided with such a scholarship for a period of six months. The program was called "Bridge IT – Integration Program for Afghan IT Alumni at Risk at the TU Berlin" and is the largest self-financed project of a German university to support Afghan academics.

Employees of the Department of International Affairs of TU Berlin, Mr. Daniel Tippmann and Mrs. Agnieszka Zielinska, headed by Dr. Ulrike Hillemann-Delaney made sure that many of these guest scientists and their families could be evacuated from Afghanistan and travel to Germany.

For Dr. Peroz, however, many questions arose: How can the idle academic structures in Afghanistan be reactivated? How can Afghan university members, professors, academic staff and students who have left the country be persuaded to maintain the university landscape in Afghanistan? How can they be integrated well in Germany? How can academic education in Afghanistan be supported professionally, technically and financially through university cooperation? How could a returnee program be realized for Afghan academics?

In February 2002, Dr. Peroz presented a demand-oriented and sustainable "Higher Education Package for Afghanistan" in which he proposes a re-alignment of Germany’s foreign science policy. The central goal of this policy should be the development of efficient, high-quality and reliable academic structures in Afghanistan to secure the future of the Afghan society and economic development of the country. Afghanistan's future political and economic role in a globalized and digitized world is paramount.