Conference on digital data literacy in Africa kicks offNew Profile Partnership with University in Ghana

4 October 2022, by Linda Lämke

Photo: OER Africa/Wikipedia.org

The conference on digital data skills is taking place at the University of Education in Ghana from 3 to 7 October 2022.

Universität Hamburg—University of Excellence fosters profile partnerships with universities all over the world. This year, the University of Education Winneba in Ghana joins the group, which includes 16 universities in total. One result of our close cooperation is a jointly organized conference on digital data skills in Africa. The conference runs until 7 October.

Universität Hamburg has been building its international network of partner universities since 2012. International exchange in research, teaching, and administration is also an important building block in the Excellence Strategy. “We have already enjoyed close exchange with our strategic partner University of Stellenbosch in South Africa and we are delighted to have now gained the university in Winneba as a new profile partner. The cooperation is an important step towards intensifying our cooperation with universities on the African continent,” explains Courtney Peltzer-Hönicke, head of the Department of International Affairs at Universität Hamburg.

Conference on promoting data skills

For profile partnerships, projects are pursued above all at faculty-level. The University of Winneba focuses on teacher education and thus works closely with the Faculty of Education at Universität Hamburg, among others. One result of the cooperation is an international conference hosted by the university in Winneba. It is being financed through the PointSud program run by the German Research Foundation.

In line with the motto “Digital Data Literacy Empowerment: Competence Models for Digital Data Literacy in Africa and Digital Repositories as Open Educational Resource,” the conference (3–7 October) will focus on issues related to digitalization and its impact on the production, communication, and handling of knowledge in research and education institutions. Roughly 30 researchers are also developing models to specifically promote digital and scientific skills in the Global South, also taking African circumstances into consideration.

Alongside Prof. Dr. Telse Iwers, Prof. Dr. Andreas Körber, Dr. Phil. Myriam Hummel (all Faculty of Education), Prof. Dr. Henning Schreiber, and Dr. Katrin Pfeiffer (both Asien-Afrika-Institut), researchers from various faculties at Universität Hamburg are organizing the workshop. On site, there will also be exchange between representatives of the University of Stellenbosch and the profile partner University of North Carolina at Greensboro (United States).

More information about Universität Hamburg’s strategic partnerships and profile partners