German Universities Go "Offshore" By Christian Bode

Over 600 cheerfully noisy graduates and their proud families are packed into Cairo's largest conference room. The Egyptian national anthem is intoned, then Germany's, deserving professors from the partner universities of Ulm and Stuttgart are honoured, and finally the certificates are handed out: the "German University in Cairo" (GUC) is bidding farewell to its first class. Its founder, Professor Ashraf Mansour, a former DAAD and Alexander von Humboldt scholarship holder at the University of Ulm, has every reason to be pleased, and so do his private sponsors, who donate a share of their wealth to benefit the community as is expected of good Muslims. The graduates of the mainly natural scientific and technical degree courses speak perfect English, whereas even after two years of mandatory lessons their German is limited if they don't happen to be graduates of the excellent German schools in Cairo or have studied part of their degree course in Germany.

Their degree is Egyptian, but accredited by German agencies; consultations are still underway regarding joint degrees with the partner universities. The graduates and their families have paid approximately 8,500 euros in fees per year (the best may receive discounts of up to 50 percent). The German side has spent around 3.5 billion euros - via DAAD from funds provided by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs - since the university's founding in 2001, mainly for German lecturers, administrators, and on grants. The Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Deutsche Welle and a number of businesses are also on board, and the project enjoys political support at the highest levels in both countries.

The Arab countries

The GUC has gained widespread recognition in the Arab countries and made German universities "acceptable" as founding partners. The German Jordanian University (GJU) in Amman was founded soon afterwards; however, it differs in significant aspects: it is a state university with currently 1,100 students and is partnered with a consortium of German universities of applied sciences, led by the Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences. The language of instruction at GJU is English, however in the fourth year of study a one-year stay in Germany is mandatory. The university has even developed its own Master's degree course in German as a Foreign Language in order to meet the demand for German language teachers. The stay in Germany integrates study and practical content for preferably all students. The university's expansion is also financed indirectly by transforming previous credit debt into state investment assistance.

At a somewhat less advanced stage is the "German University of Technology" in Oman, which has just accepted its first almost 100 students to initially four degree courses. Its sponsor is the RWTH Aachen, and its founding rector, Professor Rauhut, is a previous rector of RWTH. It is financed from the private purse of the Minister of Religious Affairs, and is also among the projects supported by DAAD's "Export Programme".

Support of this kind is not required, on the other hand, in the case of the "King Abdullah University of Science and Technology" in Jeddah, where money has so far presented no challenge to speak of. Here the foreign universities, among them the TU Munich, are in demand as well-paid service providers, guarantors of quality and "crowd pullers" for marketing purposes. Similar conditions apply to the newer foundations in the Gulf states of Qatar, Kuwait, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, where well-known Anglo-American universities and the University of Paris Sorbonne are involved. What makes these (Gulf) universities special is that they are aimed less at the (rather scarce) local youth than at foreign customers: education offerings as part of a strategy for the "age after oil".

This strategy was pioneered by Singapore, which with the help of renowned universities from abroad has meanwhile gone a long way towards achieving its intention of becoming an "education hub". Today, between 25 and 30 percent of students there are foreign nationals. Among the universities involved is the TU Munich, which operates a "German Institute of Science & Technology" (GIST) with natural scientific and technical Master's degree courses.