The Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Scheme, a joint initiative of the African Union and the European Union, is being implemented under the auspices of the Pan-African Partnership. The programme is directly managed by the European Commission through the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, under the supervision of the Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development and in collaboration with the African Union Commission Department for Human Resources, Science and Technology.
ESIMSAD is an abbreviation for Electrochemical Science and Innovative Materials for Sustainable Africa Development organized by the four HEIs in Africa and one EU Technical partner.
The overall objective of the programme is to enhance human capital development in Africa, while strengthening intra-African collaboration as called for by Agenda 2063.
The programme’s specific objectives are to: increase the employability of students;
improve the quality of higher education in Africa and its relevance to Africa’s development vision;
strengthen the modernisation and internationalisation of African higher education institutions, and promote the development of an African higher education and research space
Mobility of students and staff between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is expected to help them acquire stronger knowledge and skills and contribute to improve the quality and relevance of teaching and learning through exchanges of practices. Within the African Union vision, this is also essential for developing higher education capacity to generate African solutions to African challenges and to build an African higher education and research space.
In addition, the scheme will contribute to strengthen the modernisation and internationalisation strategies of HEIs through the establishment of mechanisms to manage the mobility flows. This will in turn increase HEIs’ capacity to forge partnerships with other institutions to undertake joint collaboration and research.
Furthermore, the programme is bringing together HEIs from different regions which will have to set up adequate mechanisms to organise the exchanges, such as arrangements to compare curricula and recognise the study periods abroad. It is therefore expected that the programme will enhance harmonisation and standardisation of higher education in line with the African Union Strategy for Harmonisation of Higher Education. It will provide specific lessons for the implementation of the Pan African Quality and Accreditation Framework and make a substantial contribution to regional integration.
Requirements
Applicants are invited ONLY from African countries nationalities for scholarships in the fields of Materials Science, Solar Energy, Physics, Inorganic Chemistry, Materials Electrochemistry and Energy Technologies and Physical Chemistry under ESIMSAD project.
ESIMSAD scholarships are jointly administered by four (4) African partner Universities, where selected students and staff will be able to engage in postgraduate studies, research, teaching or training AAU, WITS, UNN and AASTU.
Scholarship Worth
The ESIMSAD individual scholarships cover one roundtrip flight ticket, visa costs, participation costs, comprehensive insurance coverage (health, accident and travel) and a monthly subsistence allowance from which scholarship recipients are to cover accommodation expenses. The monthly subsistence allowance is calculated per mobility option (and can be viewed under ‘Scholarship Information and guidelines’
PARTNERS
• Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• University of Nigeria Nsukka, Nigeria
• University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa University
• Addis Ababa Science and Technology University, Addis Ababa Ethiopia
• Cairo University, Cairo Egypt
• University College of Cork, Cork, Ireland (EU Technical University)
