Apply for Thomas Sankara PhD Scholarships 2021

The GPN is an interdisciplinary and international network of excellence with the head office located at the University of Kassel (Germany) and partner universities in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. It co-operates closely with various partner NGOs in the respective countries. The GPN is funded by the programme “Exceed – Higher Education Excellence in Development Cooperation” launched by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

The GPN decided to name its PhD scholarships after Thomas Sankara being an outstanding personality from the Global South, whose ideas and practices of resisting neo-colonialism and promoting independent pathways for countries of the Global South are deemed to inspire the work of the Global Partnership Graduate School.

In the framework of its Graduate School of Research for Global Partnership, the GPN invites students from ODA recipient countries to apply for a Thomas Sankara PhD scholarship at a GPN partner university. Further, it will enable and fund research co-operations between partner universities working on Global Partnership in the global economy (in the fields of agriculture, finance, and energy), in development cooperation (access, accountability, deep participation) and/or in knowledge production (Eurocentrism and alternative knowledge).

The universities contributing to the GPN are the following:

Haramaya University (Ethiopia)
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU, India)
Makerere University (Uganda)
Rhodes University (South Africa)
Université des Sciences Appliquées du Développement (USAD, Burkina Faso)
Université d’Etat Haiti (UEH, Haiti)
Université Virtuelle Senegal (UVS, Senegal)
University of Cape Coast (UCC, Ghana)
University of the West Indies (UWI, Jamaica)
University of the Witwatersrand (Wits, South Africa)*
University of Kassel (UKS, Germany)

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Only those two universities marked as bold, University of the Witwatersrand and University of Cape Coast, participate in this call for applications. All other listed universities are only involved as possible secondary institutions providing second supervisors.

The GPN is committed to creating equal opportunities for doctoral candidates. We particularly encourage women and people from other marginalized groups to apply.

*Applicants to the University of the Witwatersrand must also please apply simultaneously to one of the PhD programmes in the School of Social Sciences (e.g. Sociology, Development Studies or International Relations). Please consult the website of the university for details and the closing dates of such programmes. Successful applicants to the GPN will also need to be accepted by one of these PhD programmes.