Bonn, 05 to 07 June 2023
The DAAD SDG Graduate Schools (SDG-GS) Alliance seek to contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), especially SDG4: “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. Funded by the BMZ, the programme assists universities in the global south to fulfil their role as driving forces for sustainable development locally and globally, in partnership with German universities. There are four SDG-GS in Africa, two in Latin America, host of the Midterm Conference), and one in Asia, each focused on interdisciplinary research topics related to sustainability. Increasing teaching capacities by incorporating information and communication technologies and internationalisation are among the goals of the SDG-GS Alliance. Against this background, the seven SDG-GS proposed the Midterm Conference on “Digitalisation in Higher Education and Research in International Cooperation for Sustainability”. The DAAD together with the ZEF-based Doctoral Studies Support Program (DSSP) led the organisation of the conference, which was only successful thanks to the active participation of all SDG-GS.
The conference aimed, in general, to promote cross-regional reflection on the role of higher education and research cooperation, and, in particular, to reflect on the role of digitalisation in higher education and research in achieving the SDGs, and strengthening international cooperation for sustainability. The audience of the event encompassed mainly SDG-GS coordinators (from the German and the international partner universities, which are in Cameroon, Colombia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Peru, South Africa, and Vietnam) and a few external experts in matters concerning digitalisation of higher education and research data management. Each SDG-GS contributed to sharing its experiences, lessons learned, and challenges, as well as raising questions inspired by these experiences. Invited experts provided additional inputs for reflection and dialogue with members of the SDG-GS.
Find the complete report about the conference here.