Doctoral degrees for capacity development: Results from a survey among African BiGS-DR alumni

Based on the experiences of 65 African alumni of the Bonn Interdisciplinary Graduate School for Development Studies, this paper elaborates how successfully capacity development can be organized via academic migration. The results of the alumni survey clearly indicate that a home-tie-oriented training offers a solid base for supporting capacity development processes if it is organized in the form of a doctoral program. Such a program framework supports the establishment or maintenance of necessary social networks with former and present colleagues, African employers, as well as with other professionals or research institutions. The common practice of African employers to send staff and students to Bonn for the doctoral training as well as other home-tie components help to guarantee an attractive carrier perspective for the graduates in their home countries. The survey results also show that many African alumni have the chance to contribute their knowledge, expertise and experience to political and societal processes in their home countries even though this takes place on an institutional level rather than on an individual level. This development-relevant involvement in consultancy and decision-making processes can mainly be explained by the selection of doctoral candidates from African institutions with good linkages and a consultancy status that can communicate their research results and have impacts at the national level.