General

50 Years of East African-German University Relations and Academic Exchange

The DAAD in Kenya and the Regional Office for East Africa in Nairobi can look back on an impressive record. In the last 50 years, around 18,000 students and researchers from Kenya and at least 45,000 from the countries of East Africa have been supported. More than 400 guests celebrated the anniversary in Nairobi in September 2023 in the presence of the DAAD Secretary General, Dr. Kai Sicks at a regional alumni meeting and a science forum followed by a reception.

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DAAD Network Meeting 2023

Every year, the heads of the DAAD's external network come to Bonn in the summer to exchange ideas with their colleagues at headquarters and also with each other, to discuss the latest developments at the DAAD and in the six departments, and at the same time to report on their work and the framework conditions in their countries and regions.

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DAAD President Confirmed in Office

Professor Joybrato Mukherjee was re-elected as DAAD President in Bonn today. The General Assembly of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) also confirmed Vice President Muriel Helbig in office. In addition, a new Executive Committee and a part of the Board of Trustees were elected for the world’s biggest academic exchange organisation.

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Stocktaking and perspectives of German language promotion in Sub-Saharan Africa: networking and exchange at a conference May 14–17, 2023 in Stellenbosch, South Africa

Africa is multilingual. German is taught and learned alongside other foreign languages. The reasons for learning German in Africa vary. While studying in Germany is one of the main reasons why students in higher education want to learn German, there is also increased interest in internships, job opportunities, family reunification, and migration. The promotion of German in sub-Saharan Africa is therefore becoming a focus of the Federal Foreign Office.

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And the winner of the Falling Walls Lab Nairobi 2023 is…

On Thursday, May 11, 2023, the DAAD Nairobi, in partnership with the Goethe-Institut Nairobi hosted this year’s Falling Walls Lab at the Goethe-Institut Auditorium. Falling Walls Lab is a world-class pitch competition, networking forum, and stepping stone that brings together a diverse and interdisciplinary pool of students and early-career professionals by providing a stage for breakthrough ideas both globally and locally.

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Germany – here we come!

The annual selection of East African scholarship holders who will pursue PhD studies in Germany culminated in celebrations: On April 27, the DAAD Office in Nairobi hosted nine out of 13 happy scholars for a small but lively and engaging gathering to acknowledge and appreciate the achievement of winning a DAAD scholarship.

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Regional Responsibility

DAAD Nairobi visiting NM-AIST in Arusha/Tanzania

DAAD Nairobi, in its regional responsibility for East African countries, visited NM-AIST in Arusha in March 2023. With its MSC Embedded and Mobile Systems course, the Nelson Mandela African Institution for Science and Technology (NM-AIST) in Arusha (Tanzania) is the core of the Centre of Excellence for ICT in East Africa (CENIT@EA), which has been established since 2017 and is being implemented by GIZ, DAAD, and IUCEA with funding from BMZ on behalf of the East African Community.

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Fact Finding Mission

Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) of the University of Passau in Kenya

Prof. Joachim Posegga, Chairman of the Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics at the University of Passau and his faculty's international representative, travelled to Kenya on behalf of his university between March 27 and March 31, 2023, to support internationalisation and the recruitment of international students abroad.

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Porträt of the Month: April 2023

Women in science: Prof. Yalemtsehay Mekonnen from Ethiopia, Prof. Suhaila Hashim from Kenya, and Dr. Beatrice Tarimo from Tanzania

Women are still underrepresented in the sciences; they make up only a third of all scientists globally. According to the most recent UNESCO World Science Report, the so-called "gender divide" is especially clear in the field of artificial intelligence, where only 22% of the workers are women. With 22 percent of professors being female, there is still a lot to be done in the German higher education landscape as well. In this portrait of the month, we are pleased to introduce to you three women in science: Prof. Yalemtsehay Mekonnen from Ethiopia, Prof. Suhaila Hashim from Kenya, and Dr. Beatrice Tarimo from Tanzania.

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DAAD hosts first dinner talk in 2023 on the topic: Security and Artificial Intelligence

It is a fact that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is bringing about a paradigm shift in how we see and move in the world. Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly a topic of public discussion, sometimes even with concern: Will computers replace us? Are artificial brains better doctors, engineers, or even artists? Can ChatGPT, a machine learning system (trained by humans) with supervised and reinforced learning methods, pass the most difficult university exams?

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