idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft
The University of the Arts (HfK) Bremen presented its international cooperation project “Design Department Sulaimania: The Future of Design in Iraq” at this year’s TNB conference in Berlin. As the only humanities and cultural studies project within the funding scheme and the only university of the arts and music, HfK Bremen was invited to present its international project at the conference.
The TNB conference took place from 13 to 15 April 2026 under the title “Responsibility and Perspective – Transnational Education Programmes in International Comparison”. Through the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the German government funds transnational education programmes worldwide with a strong connection to Germany.
The Berlin conference focused on the role of transnational education in the context of skills shortages, geopolitical change and global university cooperation. Representatives from seven binational universities that form part of the DAAD-funded network took part. The Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space currently supports, via the DAAD, seven binational universities and one university centre, as well as more than 300 degree programmes with German participation worldwide.
The HfK Bremen was represented at the conference by Prof. Samuel Nyholm, Te I Um and Dr Kathrin Gollwitzer-Oh. Together with project partner Dr Shirwan Can, they presented the “Design Department Sulaimania” in Berlin.
“It is a great honour for the HfK Bremen to have presented our project on this international platform,” says Dr Kathrin Gollwitzer-Oh. “The invitation demonstrates that art colleges make an important contribution to innovative, socially relevant and future-oriented educational collaborations.”
Design Studies for Iraq
The project “Design Department Sulaimania: The Future of Design in Iraq” is a collaboration between the HfK Bremen, the University of Sulaimani and the Goethe-Institut. The aim is to establish a sustainable design education programme in Iraq and to develop study programmes with international links.
The city of Sulaimania is regarded as the cultural and educational hub of the Kurdistan Region. At the same time, as in many parts of Iraq, there is a growing need for qualified training opportunities for young people. Around 65% of the country’s population is under 30 years of age.
Two needs assessments carried out in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut showed that, despite courses in painting, sculpture and ceramics, there is still a lack of study opportunities in graphic and media design. Building on this, three international summer schools have been successfully held since 2021 under the title ‘Design Academy Iraq (DAI)’.
In 2023, the network was expanded to include Jordan and Lebanon. Since 2024, the University of Sulaimani has offered a four-year Bachelor’s degree programme in ‘Visual Communication’, developed in collaboration with the HfK Bremen.
Die HfK Bremen auf der TNB-Tagung in Berlin.
Source: David Ausserhofer
Copyright: DAAD / David Ausserhofer
Criteria of this press release:
Journalists
Art / design, Cultural sciences
transregional, national
Cooperation agreements, Scientific conferences
English
You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.
You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).
Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.
You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).
If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).
