Capacity building in Higher Education: Mozambique Energy project concluded

Since 2015 the University of Groningen has led a large capacity building project aiming to strengthen four Mozambican Universities in the area of Energy. From the start the focus has mainly been on Renewable Energy and Energy Transition. A lot has been accomplished in a partnership with, amongst others, Energy Academy Europe (later New Energy Coalition), Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Stellenbosch University (South Africa) and Chalmers University (Sweden). The project was concluded this year with a positive assessment from Nuffic, the funding organization on behalf of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The main achievements were (a) the development and roll out of a new, innovative 2-year MSc curriculum named ”Renewable Energy Systems Management” with two tracks in the second year, (b) the training of twenty-seven staff from four Mozambican Universities (20 MSc candidates and 7 PhD candidates), in order to increase the teaching and research capacity in Mozambique, and (c) the construction and installation of laboratory facilities for teaching and research purposes.

The project was confronted with a few challenges, but the Consortium proved to be very solid and constructive. The cooperation with Stellenbosch University (South Africa) was key for the successful implementation of the project.

The University of Groningen and Stellenbosch University are now exploring opportunities to team up for new projects, in the framework of their Strategic Partnership.

More information about the project: Erik Haarbrink
More info about the Strategic Partnership with Stellenbosch University: Anita Veltmaat