Significance of Students’ Mobility Towards Capacity Development

Capacity development is widely recognised as a critical foundation for strengthening climate resilience and advancing effective water resources management across Africa. As climate change intensifies hydrological variability, the capacity of higher education and research institutions to train skilled specialists, generate scientific knowledge, and support evidence-based adaptation becomes increasingly important. In response to these challenges, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has supported long-term structure-building collaborations between African and German institutions, notably through the West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) and the Southern African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL).

A central element of both initiatives is the implementation of structured doctoral programmes coordinated and academically anchored at the International Centre for Water Resources and Global Change (ICWRGC) in Koblenz. These programmes integrate rigorous coursework, interdisciplinary research, and joint African–German supervision to ensure comparable academic standards and coherence across regions. Within this framework, student mobility to Germany constitutes a key component aimed at enhancing research quality, fostering scientific independence, and strengthening international collaboration.

The presentation investigates the significance of student mobility for capacity development, drawing on qualitative evidence from interviews with doctoral students participating in the SASSCAL Graduate School in Integrated Water Resource Management (SGSP-IWRM). In addition, evaluation interviews were conducted with German supervisors to assess academic performance, professional conduct, institutional and social integration, research progress, and the overall mobility experience. The results of these supervisory evaluations are presented alongside student perspectives.

The analysis explores students’ objectives, supervision experiences, participation in academic activities, perceived benefits and challenges, and overall academic progress. These findings are complemented by supervisors’ assessments, providing a comprehensive view of the mobility experience. The results demonstrate that student mobility makes a substantial contribution to capacity development at both individual and institutional levels. Key outcomes include the advancement of technical and analytical research skills, increased academic independence and leadership capacity, expanded professional networks, enhanced cross-cultural competencies, and strengthened institutional linkages and research visibility.

Despite these positive impacts, several challenges were identified, including constraints related to the duration of mobility periods, limited supervisor availability, and financial and administrative procedures. Based on these insights, the presentation recommends extending mobility periods to a minimum of six months, improving the alignment between supervisor availability and student timelines, streamlining financial and administrative processes, and strengthening pre-departure orientation and support mechanisms. Overall, the study provides evidence-based guidance for optimizing student mobility as a strategic instrument for sustainable capacity development in climate- and water-related research programmes across Africa.