Within the framework of cooperating in Masters and PhD programmes, the aim of the African Excellence Centre at UWC in Cape Town is to prepare the next generation of leaders to meet the typical economic, social and political challenges arising from the development process. The research-oriented training programmes already established at the Ruhr-University of Bochum and the University of the Western Cape have been run in close cooperation for several years now. The course offerings are sourced from the disciplines of economics and social sciences (particularly macroeconomics and political science) and the administrative sciences. The course programme is supplemented by substantial inputs from the fields of project management and empirical social research. The programmes are theory-based but also have a strong empirical focus.