A regional and multi-faceted approach to postgraduate water education: The WaterNet experience in Southern Africa

A regional and multi-faceted approach to postgraduate water education: The WaterNet experience in Southern Africa

Jonker, L.
Van der Zaag, P.
Gumbo, B.
Rockström, J.
Love, D.
Savenije, H.H.G.

Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Water Management

2012-11-14

This paper reports the experience of a regional network of academic departments involved in water education that started as a project and evolved, over a period of 12 yr, into an independent network organisation. The paper pursues three objectives. First, it argues that it makes good sense to organise postgraduate education and research on water resources on a regional scale and presents the WaterNet experience as an example that a regional approach can work. Second, it presents preliminary findings and conclusions that the regional approach presented by WaterNet did make a contribution to the capacity needs of the region both in terms of management and research capacity. Third, it draws two generalised lessons from the WaterNet experience. Lesson one pertains to the importance of legitimate ownership and an accountability structure for network effectiveness. Lesson two is related to the financial and intellectual resources required to jointly developing educational programmes through shared experience.

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ecaf1ea3-bd8b-4bc6-9376-16f80838c0e5

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-16-4225-2012

European Geosciences Union (EGU)

1027-5606

http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/16/4225/2012/

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 16 (11), 2012

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2012 The Author(s)
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License