African Postgraduate Students to Benefit from Scholarships

The Poly recently signed an agreement with seven African higher education institutions (HEIs), formalising the Intra Africa Caribbean Pacific (Intra-ACP) Academic Mobility Scheme through which 160 scholarships will be awarded to Africans for studies in Africa. The scheme aims to promote sustainable development and poverty alleviation by increasing the avaliability of trained and qualified high-level professional human resources in ACP countries. As far as Africa is concerned, the project aims at a broad academic, cultural and geographic exchange between HEIs on the continent.

Poly Rector, Prof Tjama Tjivikua, said: “The project offers opportunities through academic mobility scholarships to acquire and exchange relevant knowledge and develop the skills for the continent, such as technical skills, the ability to understand complexity, think in an interdisciplinary way, participate in decision-making processes, and cooperate with others across cultures”. The fields of study offered under the scholarship scheme include education, teacher training, agricultural sciences, medical sciences, communication and information sciences, engineering technology and natural sciences.

The Poly is coordinating the project, and the partner universities include the Ardi University (Tanzania), the University of Buea (Cameroon), Hawassa University (Ethiopia), Makerere University (Uganda), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Ghana), North West University and Free State University (South Africa). The University of Twente in the Netherlands is the technical partner in the project, while the Justus Liebig University Giessen (Germany), the Santander Group (Spain) and the Namibian National Qualifications Authority (NQA) constitute the associate partners. The project, funded by the European Union to an amount of N$23 million over a five-year period, will see 40 PhD and 104 Master students as well as 16 academic staff benefit in the form of scholarships.