The Portal on Innovative Approaches for Doctoral Education in Africa (IDEA-PhD) provides information and documentation on doctoral education, specifically on doctoral education in Africa.
The development of PhD programmes in African higher education institutions contributes to creating vibrant, local research climates, exploring the full potential of higher education systems across the continent, and advancing national development in African terms.
This online, interactive web-based platform aims to serve university leaders, administrators, and interested stakeholders to enhance and strengthen doctoral programmes and training in African higher education institutions. The portal offers a variety of tools and documents relevant to the challenges and opportunities facing doctoral studies in Africa and attempts to connect higher education institutions with relevant organizations, research networks, funding agencies, and each other. The portal is the initiative of the International Association of Universities (IAU) and the Catalan Association of Public Universities (ACUP) and is being developed in collaboration with the Open University of Catalonia (UOC).
The IDEA portal seeks to:
The following partners in IAU´s and ACUP´s respective projects on “Changing Nature of Doctoral Studies in Africa” and “African Spanish Higher Education Management Platform” have greatly contributed to the development of IDEA-PhD.
Alphabetic Order by Country
Universidade Agostinho Neto, Luanda, Angola
Université des Sciences et Technologies du Bénin (USTB), Benin
Université de Douala, Cameroon
Université de Yaoundé I, Cameroon
Universidad Nacional de Guinea Ecuatorial, Malabo, Equatorial Guinea,
Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya
Université Abdou Moumouni, Niamey, Niger
University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
Université d'Antananarivo, Madagascar
Universités de Bamako, Mali
Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, Mozambique
National University of Rwanda, Butare, Rwanda
Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal
Université Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis, Senegal
'Mission and Vision' offers various documents related to the overall objectives and stakes of doctoral education emphasizing innovation and strategic planning for the future. These documents also describe the current status of doctoral education and ways of approaching reform. Also available are a set of toolsthat can assist in the development of national or institutional research strategies.
'Capacity Building' focuses on assuring quality of doctoral programme design and instruction within the broader framework of building institutional capacity to deliver relevant and world-class PhD degrees. Various doctoral education systems are presented and offer stakeholders a glimpse into the models being adopted or adapted to suit African higher education needs. Explicit tools to implement capacity building measures are also available.
Both projects run by IAU and ACUP stress the importance of quality supervision to ensure successful doctoral education and training. 'Supervision' hosts a variety of links to policy documents that highlight the different models in use, along with a set of tools and support mechanisms to improve supervision at both the institutional and faculty-student level.
Data collection and management is a crucial dimension of building institutional governance capacity. 'Doctoral Education by Numbers' shares documents containing data, figures, and statistics collected on doctoral research, enrolment, and performance across the continent.
In order to better take stock of current work being done in the realm of doctoral education, 'Projects and Initiatives' presents information about projects being carried out by organizations related to postgraduate training and management. Projects listed here share a common focus, all or in part, on African higher education.
In an effort to increase collaboration and understanding amongst leaders in doctoral education on the continent, this section offers profiles of various higher education institutions in Africa and their doctoral schools and/or programmes. It also includes contact information.
Consistently highlighted as a principle challenge to delivering doctoral education in Africa, information about funding opportunities available to doctoral programme administrators and graduate school managers from various funding agencies and their programmes and projects are provided here.
This website was created by the Community Tools department () at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya () on the initiative of IAU and ACUP.
To directly contact either of the organizations responsible for IDEA-PhD, please use the email addresses listed below:
Innovative Approaches to Doctoral Education in Africa
Dr. Hilligje van't Land
Director Membership and Programmes Development
African Spanish Higher Education Management Platform Project
Nadja Gmelch
Project Manager