DIE

German Institute for Adult Education – Leibniz Centre for Lifelong Learning (DIE)

The German Institute for Adult Education – Leibniz Centre for Lifelong Learning (DIE) is an extramural research institute, which processes the socially and educationally relevant task of substantiated learning and adult education acadamically and its succesful development. As a central institution for research, politics and practice, the DIE supports stakeholders in the field of continuing education with research findings and services. The range of tasks includes application-relevant and fundamental research, infrastructural services as well as counselling for politics and practice.

On this basis, the institute’s activities focus on two objectives: On the one hand, they support adult education science and research with national and international publications and research data. On the other hand, this knowledge contributes to the development and sustainable professionalization of practice. The claim is to acknowledge and meet the needs of science, practice and politics equally. Another objective is the productive exchange with international stakeholders to visualise adult education in Germany in the international context and to position it in the European educational debate.

DIE employees elaborate research and infrastructural services in six departments, which are closely connected and cooperate in numerous projects. All research activities focus on the prerequisites, forms and consequences of adult learning. They cover all areas of continuing education: adult learning processes, didactic design of programmes, staff, organisation and management of continuing education institutions in various institutional contexts, and financial, political and legal aspects of the continuing education system. DIE services are a supporting pillar of the academic infrastructure in German continuing education – increasingly often in open access. This covers publications, statistical services, professional data base and portals as well as an academic specialised library for adult education.

DIE – Deutsches Institut für Erwachsenenbildung – Leibniz-Zentrum für Lebenslanges Lernen e.V.