Oldenburg’s international visibility as a major research hub is critical when it comes to attracting national and international researchers in the early stages of their careers to pursue research and academic qualification projects. Boosting the intensity of international research co-operation is of particular relevance here – especially in the context of UOL’s co-operation with Nelson Mandela University – as it enables researchers in early career phases to build up international networks of their own, gain experience abroad, and transfer that knowledge and expertise back to UOL. These processes can be supported and strengthened by organising joint summer schools and exchange programmes and by recruiting international early career researchers for qualification and research projects. Providing targeted support to early career researchers to foster their optimal development is a major goal for the university.

As a first step, an academic writing/publishing workshop (“Publishing Your Research” with Professor Paul Webb from Nelson Mandela University) will be offered to doctoral students at UOL over ten weeks as part of the Graduate Academy 2023 programme. In a further step, it is planned to open up workshops at UOL’s Graduate Academy to doctoral and postdoctoral students at Nelson Mandela University; a significant proportion of these workshops take place online and in English.

The activities of both universities could be supported by co-operative, binational doctoral projects with supervision and examination of the research by both NMU and UOL and – depending on the legal framework – jointly awarded doctoral degrees. Going beyond this, it is also envisaged that joint research support activities will be pursued, again with a focus in the area of doctoral training.