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Welcome to the Development Research Division

The Development Research Division (DRD) of the DAAD-funded South African-German Centre for Development Research and Criminal Justice at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa is a cooperation project of the Institute of Development Research and Development Policy of Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany, and the School of Government and the Institute for Social Development of the UWC. The Criminal Justice Division of the double centre is run in cooperation with the Law Faculty of the Humboldt-University Berlin and the Law Faculty of the University of the Western Cape.

The South African-German Centre for Development Research and Criminal Justice is the only centre in South Africa chosen for support by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) as part of their current "African Excellence" initiative. In addition to the centre at the UWC, this initiative established four other African-German centres of excellence which are based in Ghana, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as well as in Tanzania and Namibia. The establishment of such centres of excellence is a cornerstone in the DAAD programme for Africa for which funding is being provided by the German Federal Foreign Office.


The goal of the African Excellence programme is to contribute significantly to the raising of the quality and relevance of education in selected fields at the chosen African universities, in particular by expanding the teaching and research capacity of such institutions and by promoting effective forms of networking between themselves, their German partners and other research institutions. The new centres will aim to provide postgraduate students with state-of-the-art education and training of the highest international standards, whilst at the same time promoting high quality, collaborative research and innovative forms of international cooperation.

In its postgraduate teaching and research activities, the DRD will build upon the long-established cooperation between the UWC and the Ruhr University of Bochum.

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