On the occasion of the celebration of the 40th anniversary of Research cooperation between Mozambique and Sweden, the Embassy of Sweden hosted on Wednesday, 31 October, a networking forum for former Mozambican students that completed their studies in Sweden and those who benefited from the Swedish scholarships.
According to Swedish Ambassador Marie Andersson de Frutos, research cooperation between Mozambique and Sweden dates back to 1978, initially through bilateral cooperation with Eduardo Mondlane University, and subsequently the support was extended to the Ministry of Science and Technology, Higher Education and Technician-Professional. During this period, Sweden supported Eduardo Mondlane University with more than SEK 700 million, approximately 450 million meticais and supported the training of more than 200 Mozambican Masters and PhD students.
Throughout these 40 years, Sweden has promoted scholarship programs and training aimed at promoting knowledge, both to support the pursuit of higher education studies for young Mozambican students and the development of technical skills through short term professional courses in Sweden for the Mozambican private sector.
The Alumni Meeting brings together some of the Swedish-supported scholarship holders through the Eduardo Mondlane University, the Swedish Institute and the International Training Program of the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) to reflect on how to improve collaboration and exchange among Mozambican alumni. At the end of the discussions, a group of 5 students volunteered to join the committee responsible for setting up an alumni network for former Mozambican students in Sweden.
Sweden has a long tradition in higher education and research. The first Swedish university, the University of Uppsala, was founded in 1477, some 550 years ago. In addition to the University of Uppsala, Sweden has a number of other old universities such as Lund University with 350 years, University of Gothenburg with 127 years, University of Stockholm 140 years, Karolinska Institutet with 208 years and KTH Royal Institute of Technology with 191 years, among others.
