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German Arab Kurdish cooperation in Higher
Education
14.3.2007 |
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March 14, 2007
German-Jordanian cooperation in higher education has
reopened in Amman this week, with the support of
German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) under the
title of “Winter School” which gathered 28 academics
representing six Arab and German universities.
Dortmund University, the founder of the initiative,
opened its sixth conference (Winter School) in
Amman, under the title “Revitalization of heritage
cities” with the aim of “Sustainable and Integrative
Urban Renewal and Development – Planning and
Management”. This conference was hosted by the
UN-University’s “International Leadership Institute
– ILI” and al-Balqa Applied University.
Last Year, Winter School took place for the first
time in Amman under the motto “Reconstruction and
Development – Planning and Management”. Chairman of
“Winter School” and Head of Department of Urban
Design at Dortmund University, Prof. Christa Reicher,
said in the opening session, “We want to find a
balance between ecological, economic and social
issues, in our building culture but also in our
planning culture.”“This is one of the aims we want
to point out today, when we open the sixth
conference in Amman again…This is a very important
step in the different activities we want to follow
up in this region, especially in strengthening a
planning network in the region,” she said.
The 10-day conference aims at networking and
providing a framework for an intercultural dialogue
for planning a natural, social and economic
environment for a sustainable future.The School of
Planning in Dortmund pursues an inter- and
trans-disciplinary approach to planning research and
education, which incorporates a wide range of
subjects and disciplines including natural and
social sciences as well as engineering and design.
In her speech, Reicher said, “In this session I will
attempt to trace the beginning of this cooperation
between our university and the Kurdish universities
in Kurdistan region (North Iraq), al-Balqa Applied
University in Jordan and Birzeit University in
Palestine, and also to look forward to the next
steps.”
Prof. Reicher gave an overview of Dortmund School of
Spatial Planning (DSSP). “Our Faculty was founded in
1969. It was the first such school in Germany. In
terms of students and personnel, DSSP is one of the
largest educational institutions for spatial
planners in Europe, with a staff of 17 professors,
100 scientists and 1,100 students,” she said.Since
1975, about 3,000 students have graduated from the
Faculty to find work in the public sector as well as
in semi-public and private institutions, Reicher
elaborated.
Research and teaching is dedicated to all spatial
scales from the neighbourhood and local levels up to
the regional, national and supranational levels.
Since 1985, the School offers an MA in English
language, to qualify planners from developing
countries (SPRING). Exchanges on Spatial planning
and partnership agreements have been growing since
1990 between our School and the al-Balqa Applied and
Birzeit universities.
Five years later, since 2000, the University of
Dortmund, Faculty of spatial Planning, is
co-operating with three Kurdish universities in
Kurdistan autonomous region (North Iraq). The
objective of the co-operation is establishing an
education department on planning and management.
The co-operation between Universität Dortmund and
University of Dohuk began in 2000. The co-operation
was institutionalized by a formal agreement, which
was extended to University of Sulaimaniyeh in 2005.
The initiators of the cooperation, Prof. Günter
Kroës and Ing. Hasan Sinemillioglu, were responsible
for the first negotiations with the universities of
Salahuddin and Dohuk, which formed the starting
point for the support of DAAD.
Since the year 2001, when the first workshop on
planning took place at University of Dohuk,
participants of various universities,
administrations, representatives of UN organisations
and international NGOs have discussed the planning
problems of communities; every year a workshop was
organized as a discussion and work forum for
planning problems and the consequences for teaching
those topics at universities.
In the year 2004 and 2005 this planning workshop was
organised as “Winter School” under the title
“University Training for Sustainable Reconstruction
and Development”. Representatives of three
universities in the Kurdistan (North Iraq) as well
as from Jordan and Turkey participated on this
conference. The conference developed an action plan
and a draft curriculum for planning education at
University of Dohuk.
Reicher summarized the experience of her region in
Germany, by querying the term “Reconstruction and
Development”. “I will try to explain it, by looking
at our region, the Ruhrgebiet. This region had to
suffer a very strong transformation within the last
150 years. Between 1850 and 1925, inhabitants rose
from around 400,000 to 3.8 million. Roads, factories
and housing estates were thrown up hastily. During
the past few decades the region developed from an
industrialized and coal-mining area to one hosting
environmental technology and new business
sectors.”German Arab Kurdish cooperation in Higher
Education Revitalization of heritage cities
star com.jo
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