This trend paper provides an overview of the main issues and trends in development cooperation programmes in higher education and research. The paper explores two main types of funding: programmes which fund collaborative projects between organisations in developing countries and higher education and research organisations in the North, and fellowship/scholarship programmes that enable candidates from developing countries to obtain a diploma or degree abroad. It highlights trends and issues from these capacity building or collaborative programmes, explaining the commonalities and differences between the programmes, and presenting an analysis of policy and programme changes that have taken place over the last few years.