The central theme of the Forum in 2022 will be “Higher Education Institutions in Transformation? The Impact of the Pandemic”. At the time when many institutions around the world are getting back into more or even full presence mode of operation again after two and a half years of disruption, it is crucial to rethink the learnings and explore the consequences of the pandemic to the higher education institutions and the future higher education. The 2022 Forum thus wants to give the opportunity to exchange and discuss initiated changes drawn from the pandemic experiences as well as open issues arising from them.

The DIES Alumni Forum is meant to bring together DIES alumni to share views and perspectives on recent developments in higher education as well as to exchange practices and discuss pressing issues in the dynamic field of higher education management and its capacity building from an inter-regional perspective. The Forum will be hosted by the University of Potsdam from Germany and carried out in cooperation with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK), and the European partner institutions who are implementing training courses in the DIES Programme, i.e. Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Leibniz University Hannover, University of Applied Science Osnabrück together with Centre for Higher Education, and University of Cologne.