African night. Course attendants in African gear. Catherine is donned in a golden head gear

UNISTAFF is an international training programme that aims at enhancing the competence of university staff in issues of organization, curriculum development, teaching, learning and research management. The programme also deals with institutional change and development, with special emphasis on improving quality and relevance in teaching and research.

Catherine said she has met people from different cultures in the course. "It is a great learning experience for me … I am exploring my potential and creating a new self-awareness. I have met people of diverse cultural backgrounds. I have been exposed to different opinions and views. I am living the often quoted adage that learning is a continuous, lifelong and in my case very enlightening experience."

UNISTAFF has been running since 1994 and is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The course is conducted during the summer semester. It usually starts at the beginning of May and ends mid-July. The course draws participants from Central America, East Africa, South-East Asia and Iran.

The end aim of UNISTAFF is to empower university staff from developing regions create change in the individual countries and regions. It does this by encouraging the formation of UNISTAFF alumni-networks. The networks compose their own training, research and implementation programmes, with the assistance of DAAD.

The networks are linked up with each other, thus constituting an international learning community. The Regional Eastern Africa-UNISTAFF Alumni-Network (REAL), which is the East Africa alumni-network, was founded in November 2006 and will be holding its 2nd conference in Malawi in August 2007.