1 Background

After four decades of war, Afghanistan’s higher education infrastructure was almost completely destroyed by 2001 [1]. During this period, many of the best faculty left the country in exile; others were killed or isolated from the academic world [2]. Many universities were closed and others functioned only at a basic level during the conflict years [2,3]. As a consequence, resulting facilities and teaching faculty were not nearly commensurate with the needs of a modern higher education system. Soon after the removal of the Taliban regime, international donors and representatives of higher education in Afghanistan opened a dialogue towards restoration of the educational system [1,3]. As agriculture is the economically and socially most important sector in Afghanistan, attention was focused early on the rebuilding of agricultural faculties. USAID was the main donor, with the ‘Advancing Afghan Agriculture Alliance’, or A4 program, the largest project supporting agricultural HE until 2010 [4]. In 2007, Purdue University was awarded a grant of $ 7 million for implementing the 4year program [5]. Project implementing sub-contractors at the regional universities were three international NGOs with existing programs in Afghanistan.