On 12 May 2009 VU University Amsterdam’s Rector, Professor Lex Bouter, signed a Letter of Intent with Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation, Bert Koenders, at Stellenbosch University for a four year skills development project for South African Master students.
In this project, VU University Amsterdam will be the coordinating institution and will represent other Dutch universities and their South African partner universities participating in the project. In the first year these are Wageningen University and Research Centre and Delft University of Technology. From year two onward, other Dutch universities and their South African partner universities will be invited to join in the project in offering skills development courses and training in the particular fields of Transport and Logistics, Agriculture, Water & Water management, Finance & Accounting and Tourism.
Wageningen UR will take care of the trainings related to agriculture. The existing short courses (143 months) which are already run by several groups within Wageningen UR, together with existing BSc and MSc courses run by Wageningen UR and Van Hall Larenstein, are being considered. In the first project year there are about 25 grants available for each of the three Dutch universities involved.
For potential South African PhD students, various academic skill development courses will be offered, both in South Africa and in the Netherlands. In the four year project, more than 400 South African students are expected to go to the Netherlands for skills development in the particular field mentioned above.