In the framework of the DAAD Conference Moving target digitalisation: re-thinking global exchange in higher education, the Berlin Center for Global Engagement (BCGE), part of the Berlin University Alliance, is hosting an online panel discussion on the question of how, in practice, digital cooperation provides chances and challenges in fostering cooperation in higher education with the ‘Global South.’

On the one hand, digitalization and open science promise virtually ubiquitous opportunities for collaboration and thus a global academic landscape with flattened hierarchies and multiplied chances for researchers from the ‘Global South’. It also represents a challenge or even a threat, on the other hand, since it might in reality result in a further marginalization of institutions and individuals based on global and local differences in digitalization levels and access. It might also open the door to intensified political surveillance. Hence, instead of de-hierarchizing current structures, it could even strengthen existing hierarchies in knowledge production and put academic freedom in jeopardy.

The following questions will be addressed:

• How can ‘digital knowledge mobility’ be used in establishing partnerships and cooperation to foster an inclusive internationalization?
• What are the prerequisites for inclusive internationalization activities and how can they be implemented, especially with North-South university cooperation?
• Are there best practice examples for meeting the ‘digital infrastructural’ challenges in cooperation with partners in the ‘Global South’?

Panelists:

• Prof. Michelle Christensen, Visiting Professor for Open Science at the Technische Universität Berlin / Einstein Center Digital Future (ECDF)
• Dr. Jo Havemann, Access 2 Perspectives, Berlin
• Mrs. Mammie N. Hutchful Nortey, Research Development Officer, Office of Research Innovation and Development (ORID), University of Ghana

Registration: www.daad.de/de/der-daad/was-wir-tun/digitalisierung/moving-target/

About BCGE

The Berlin Center for Global Engagement (BCGE) has been recently established within the framework of the Berlin University Alliance, a partnership of s Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. The BCGE is a platform for existing and new projects in the fields of (1) research on, from, and with the ‘Global South’, (2) science diplomacy, and (3) academic freedom.

Further information on BCGE: www.berlin-university-alliance.de/en/commitments/international/bcge/index.html