The Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Scheme supports higher education co-operation between countries in Africa. The scheme aims to promote sustainable development and ultimately contribute to poverty reduction by increasing the availability of trained and qualified high-level professional manpower in Africa.

The programme’s objective is to improve the skills and competences of students and staff through enhanced mobility between African countries. Strengthening co-operation between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Africa will increase access to quality education and will encourage and enable African students to undertake postgraduate studies in the African continent. Furthermore, mobility of staff (academic and administrative) will enhance the international co-operation capacity of HEIs in Africa.

More precisely, the Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Scheme aims to:

• contribute to the improvement of the quality of higher education through the promotion of internationalisation and harmonisation of programmes and curricula within participating institutions;
• enable students, academics and staff to benefit linguistically, culturally and professionally from the experience gained in the context of mobility to another African country.

Please view the Intra-Africa Mobility page for more information

Erasmus+ is the programme of the Education, Audio-visual and Culture Executive Agency of the European Commission. It provides grants for a wide range of activities and includes a strong international dimension (i.e. co-operation with partner countries) notably in the field of higher education, which opens the programme to institutional cooperation and mobility of students and staff worldwide. Scholarships are available under Key Action 1 Mobility: International Credit Mobility (ICM).

ICM takes place between institutions in two countries, one programme country and one partner country, and it is facilitated through a bilateral agreement. Institutions need to apply for the funding beforehand and can then implement the successfully awarded mobilities. With regards to staff mobility, there are two types of mobility available: staff teaching mobility and staff training mobility.

The teaching staff mobility allows academic staff to contribute to and learn from best practice and find out first-hand the workings of another country’s education system. Staff teaching mobility entails a teaching activity of minimum 8 hours per week. Teaching activity does not only refer to formal lectures but may include partaking in a seminar or an academic student meeting or joining a lecture given by colleagues or even providing research supervision to postgraduate students. The main aim with the teaching activity is engagement with students.

The training staff mobility focuses on professional development opportunities for academic and support staff to improve the skills required for their portfolios and could include aspects such as job-shadowing, training in specific scientific methods, training in specific laboratory work, scoping best practices, attendance of a workshop or attendance of a staff training week. The training programme could be built around the transfer of knowledge and good practice, learning from shared experience, the acquiring of new practical skills or to explore new ideas for teaching and learning.

Research stays for University Academics and Scientists

• Application deadlines: 1 October for stays as of February of the following year; 1 April for stays as of August. The application procedure occurs online through the DAAD portal. A copy must be submitted by post to the DAAD Information Centre in Johannesburg.
• Value: An appropriate flat-rate travel allowance will be paid.
• Website: visit the website here.

Bilateral Exchange of Academics

• Together with the National Research Foundation (NRF), DAAD offers a programme for the exchange of scientists.
• Application deadline: 1 October for stays as of February of the following year; 1 April for stays as of August.
• Value: DAAD takes charge of the stay expenses in Germany.
• Website: visit the website here.