British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences
4. Investing in individuals – the early research career
Laying the foundations for research
4.1. The key to strengthening the humanities and social sciences will be to invest in individuals, to ensure that Africa has a strong foundation of researchers, producing good research and able to train successive generations. Funding research and training researchers, through scholarships or fellowships, cannot be separated.Where institutions are weak, or where research cultures have disappeared, it is individuals who can, with appropriate support, galvanise activity within their departments and build research and postgraduate programmes around them.The early careers of researchers are marked by two distinct phases: the PhD, and the early postdoctoral career.Together these provide the foundation of research training, but doctoral funding is limited, and defined postdoctoral positions are often lacking. Research expertise is already too low to meet existing needs and many of the continent’s best scholars will retire over the coming years without sufficient next-generation researchers to replace them. [34]
Increasing doctorates but protecting quality
4.2. It is evident that to improve research capacity postgraduate training must be dramatically increased. There is some evidence of this already taking place, with participants from Botswana and Cameroon both reporting high numbers of PhDs in their departments, but the picture is mixed and uneven. Although policies to increase the numbers of PhD-trained staff in some countries are welcome, these have often underestimated the capacity to train and supervise doctoral students, and policies which simply mandate lecturers to gain a PhD are unlikely to be address the problem, and may risk sacrificing quality, particularly if lecturers are encouraged to take doctorates in the cheapest or most readily available areas, rather than in subjects of real interest to them. Instead countries will need to assemble coherent national postgraduate training plans, identifying internationally available scholarships which may help to supplement local opportunities, and making sure these are used to their full potential. Increasing PhDs to the extent to which they are needed will be expensive, but the benefits extending from a PhD, and accruing beyond the individual being trained, should be acknowledged when decisions are made – it is after all an investment in improving research, and a well trained researcher will go on to train others.Where universities are able to offer a high quality PhD programme modest funding might make it possible for them to offer part-sponsorship to candidates who make a teaching contribution as part-time lecturers.This could help to retain the best talent within an institution towards future staffing needs, and also help to rebuild postgraduate schools.The University of Zambia, for example, has plans to do this through a graduate teaching assistant programme.
4.3. Decisions also need to be taken on the relative balance between masters and PhD training, and who should be responsible for these.The PhD is the basic research qualification, but high quality masters programmes, with rigorous methodology components, can prepare students for doctoral study, ensure that research outlines are well thought out, and mean that there is a greater likelihood of a PhD successfully being pursued to completion. Universities largely have the capacity to train masters students; what many institutions lack are the staff and facilities to develop scholars to doctoral level. Scholarships for overseas study have traditionally provided a solution to the low capacity of African universities to train at home, but while high quality is assured, this is considerably more expensive, and it makes sense to train scholars at home where possible.A tiered approach will be needed,where those that can are supported to train at home,or through split-site schemes spending part of their PhD abroad to benefit from additional supervision and better facilities, and those that cannot send their students to other regional universities, or overseas.
4.4. The key will be to create a critical mass of newly trained researchers, and, as already argued, to aim for concentrations in specific fields or subject areas, rather than offering lone scholarships to otherwise isolated researchers.This is more likely to make a noticeable impact in defined areas of research, and to justify the investments which will be required. Currently the dispersed nature of split-sites PhD awards (scattered across different departments and institutions) is one of their chief weaknesses. Existing doctoral funding schemes often experience difficulties in identifying the right candidates. Research communities with coherent training plans might offer scholarship agencies a way of locating candidates, while ensuring universities are able to train the best candidates. Similarly, staff development or human resources departments have an important role to play, by ensuring that policies are well articulated and embrace both selection for scholarships and training, that scholarship opportunities are transparently advertised, and by working with funding agencies to help them locate suitable candidates.
Split-site PhDs–acollaborative approach to doctoral training
4.5. The split-site PhD model represents a combination of the best of overseas and home study, by enabling students to pursue the majority of their study (and be registered) at their home institution, but to benefit from joint supervision, and access to the resources and facilities of an overseas university for up to a third of the time.The UK Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (CSC) has explicitly sought to expand its own split-site provision as a way of meeting the need for African scholars to be trained at home, but with additional support. [35] Split-sites help to ameliorate resource constraints, broaden academic horizons, and enable scholars to forge important contacts which can help to support them in the early stages of their career at home.At the same time the bulk of training is undertaken at home,meaning that scholars can more fully participate in the intellectual lives of their institutions, and the connection to another university can help to raise quality locally and enable supervisors to maintain links with colleagues abroad.
4.6. While a proven model, split-sites do present a number of challenges. Insufficient resources at home can constrain research during critical phases.This may be particularly problematic if limited access to up-to-date material prevents a strong research question being formulated, and the overseas portion becomes a ‘catch up’ period, or if a successful PhD stalls once a scholar returns home to other pressures and limited facilities. In the short term they are thus unlikely to be suitable for the lowest income or least-resourced countries. Ways of bridging this within the split-site framework therefore need to be investigated. Locating potential split-site awards can also be difficult.They rely fundamentally on an established and active partnership between two supervisors and typically take longer to plan than traditional PhDs as a result. Locating split-sites within existing research programmes can help, ensuring that research funding is more effectively joined-up, and with the PhD becoming one of the outputs of a wider project and with the candidate also benefitting from this wider experience. Completion rates for the Commonwealth Scholarship Scheme's split-site awards have been satisfactory to date, but the Commission is nevertheless keen to explore new ways of identifying candidates and host and partner institutions under this programme. DFID research consortia are now invited to nominate for CSC split-site PhD awards, for example, and the Commission has expressed an interest in collaborating with other UK and African partners in a similar way. Subject-specific programmes, run in collaboration and based in a select number of existing institutions might be an approach worthy of exploring further; this might enable intensive methodology programmes to be delivered for example by dedicated staff freed from other commitments.
New modes of PhD training in African universities
4.7. It may also be necessary to develop new forms of PhD, if the demand for doctoral training is to be met in African universities. It may not be necessary for all PhDs to be entirely research-based, for example, whilst distance learning and split-site study approaches (as discussed above) might be combined in new ways.Taught elements may be suitable in some fields; the PhD programme of the African Economic Research Consortium (see below) includes substantial taught elements, for example. [36] The well-established USHEPiA network has trained 31 PhDs over the course of its 13 years amongst a group of eight Eastern and Southern African universities, while the planned Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) of the Africa Population and Health Research Center envisages training cohorts of up to 25 students through an inter-disciplinary programme involving a network of African universities and research centres alongside several northern institutions. Students will be based in their home institutions but will come together at various stages to take part in a programme of joint seminars covering methodological and analytical issues, and with online support provided between seminar courses. [37] There may be potential to develop further such programmes for the humanities and social sciences; however doing so would require a long-term commitment, and a careful and lengthy planning and design exercise by a group of African research departments or centres. Substantial external funding would then need to be sought; sustaining the AERC has required substantial funding from 17 major donors, for example.
4.8. More modestly, and drawing on ideas already outlined, the best of split-site and distance learning approaches might be combined in alternative ways. Retired African academics or UK or other overseas researchers might feasibly deliver intensive summer schools or a programme of regular research seminars, focusing on research methods, critical approaches, and analytical and interpretive skills. [38] Supervision between these phases might be possible through online learning environments.This additional teaching and supervisory support might enhance the capacity of some African universities to deliver their own PhD programmes and retain their students and staff at home.A collaborative approach to PhD training between African universities, and involving foreign academics where possible, could be incorporated into new or existing research ventures (see section 3) while joint training, supervision and conferencing might ultimately help to create or strengthen clusters of research staff in particular institutions or countries, and around specific subjects or disciplines. Pursuing a non-traditional approach to doctoral training would mean focusing particularly on issues of quality, particularly if remote supervision is involved; the duties and responsibilities of supervisors would need to be carefully specified, and supervisors appropriately remunerated to ensure sufficient time is devoted to mentoring their students.
Mentoring researchers through their early careers
4.9. If greater numbers of PhD researchers are to be trained and if existing training capacity is to be used to best effect – to produce high quality theses, and to strengthen the research base – then the PhD study period will itself need to be harnessed more effectively. It is during this period when the culture of research and collaboration should be inculcated in scholars, and when scholars should be given the chance to gain a broad range of skills and experiences to support the transition from doctoral to postdoctoral research – from designing new projects, developing fundable research proposals and grant applications, to writing publishable articles and monographs. Opportunities will also need to be provided so that researchers can continue to develop these skills beyond their PhD, as writing proposals and winning funding become increasingly critical to their careers, and as they are required to manage increasingly complex projects, involving multiple researchers and possibly dispersed across more than one institution. Staff development and research offices will play an important role in developing institutional training programmes and ensuring support is provided where it is needed. Ensuring continuity within academic departments is vital and new generations of researchers need to be equipped to become new research leaders.
4.10. High quality supervision and mentoring are without doubt essential to producing high quality PhDs and to provide continued support to emerging researchers through the early years of their postdoctoral careers. Sustaining research, and training successive generations depends on the flow of ideas, knowledge and skills from experienced researchers to their junior colleagues. Support to write publishable articles and fundable proposals are two critical areas where mentoring could have a perceptible impact, and encouraging senior academics to take junior colleagues as research assistants would offer valuable learning opportunities. Many experienced African academics are however already over-stretched by teaching demands and other duties, and sometimes forced to undertake additional teaching or consultancy elsewhere to compensate for poor salaries.There is thus often little time available, or reward, for supervision and mentoring, while in some cases senior academics may feel threatened by the rise of younger colleagues. In some departments senior academics already work hard to help rather than hinder the progression of their younger colleagues – the University of Ghana was reportedly supporting junior researchers to advance their careers, while some faculties at United States International University have given postgraduates faculty member status as part of their own approach to mentorship – but such support is not always forthcoming.Teaching duties will need to be reduced to enable this, academics rewarded accordingly, and the culture of mentorship strengthened.
4.11. Mentorship will need to be formally recognised as an institutional priority and as a critical part of any academic training programme.The USHEPiA initiative has, for example, placed mentorship at the heart of its own core programme. Mentors will need to be supported themselves, to understand what is expected from them.Where it is not possible for existing staff to mentor colleagues, it may be useful to recruit retired academics for this; the AAU’s Roster of African Professionals might be extended to do this. New mentoring tools and approaches – linking academics via email or online portals such as the new AuthorAid programme to support academic publishing (see section 3.13), or involving overseas academics – may offer valuable additional support, to strengthen that provided by traditional face to face supervision.
Supporting local research training
4.12. PhDs gained at home are likely to differ from those gained abroad, certainly in terms of poorer access to resources and facilities and less frequent contact with researchers from other countries and institutions. In addition to supporting doctoral candidates to train in the UK or elsewhere outside Africa, there is also considerable scope for academics from these regions to contribute to local doctoral training and to support local research environments, just as they in turn benefit from African academics visiting their own institutions. More foreign scholars would be brought into African research communities simply by holding more conferences or workshops in African universities. Greater numbers of African PhD students might then have an opportunity to build contacts with colleagues pursuing similar interests, and would have a greater awareness of contemporary debates, and the opportunity to contribute to these. Opportunities for UK academics to contribute to research training in African universities would also be valuable, and might be achieved with relatively modest funding, through offering small stipends to enable lecturers to extend fieldwork or conference visits in order to deliver short courses, workshops or seminars.The African Studies Association of the UK (ASAUK) has recently piloted a teaching fellowships scheme, enabling a recently qualified UK PhD-holder to spend three months at an African university. [39] A series of postgraduate summer schools organised in African universities would also offer opportunities for UK academics to contribute to local research training.
Re-integrating returning scholars
4.13. Although researchers training abroad enjoy many benefits, the return process is not always well managed, and while keen to bring their skills and expertise home, many find the transition difficult to make.They typically move from a sophisticated system with access to the latest research and good facilities, to an environment where both are limited, and where time for research is not included in addition to teaching and administrative duties. Resources and facilities are not the only problems, however: also crucial is how scholars are deployed on their return home and re-incorporated into their departments. Colleagues at home, struggling to advance their own careers, may feel that returning scholars have an obligation to relieve them of some of the additional administrative and teaching duties with which they have been burdened. Several researchers reported experiencing considerable hostility and resentment on their return, with senior colleagues often unsupportive of attempts to establish departmental seminars or research groups. While the potential tensions are understandable,‘wasting’new expertise and skills by overburdening returning scholars will damage both their own emerging research careers, but also limit the benefits that their colleagues and departments stand to gain from their return. Departments and university staff development units have a responsibility to ensure that returning colleagues are well supported, and deployed in suitable roles. Maintaining regular contact with staff training overseas is likely to ease this transition and to ensure that returning staff are properly utilised and less likely to return overseas.
Developing proper career structures for emerging researchers
4.14. One of the greatest challenges that emerging researchers face is in moving from their PhD into a first research post.Positions such as the research fellow, which offer a first postdoctoral role for researchers and are often part of an externally funded project, are lacking in many African universities, making progression difficult. Junior lectureships are often the only positions available, and while teaching is typically an important part of an early academic career, for many scholars these provide no parallel opportunity to embark on new research.A proper career structure for junior researchers is needed which offers a clear vision of progression from PhD study and the time to ensure PhD research can be developed for publication.This is something which staff development or human resources departments would be well placed to address; a well defined research career structure would also enable universities to make better use of available scholarship and fellowship schemes, while also giving donors greater confidence when allocating opportunities during their selection processes. Similarly, and as noted above, returning scholars and fellows often report that research begun overseas stalls or falters through lack of time or resources. Alumni schemes might be valuable to support returning scholars to ensure a first publication is achieved in good time, or to present their research at a conference.
4.15. Overseas scholarships or research fellowships are valuable contributions to African research and training, but have a tendency to become islands in academic careers, providing a one-off boost in skills, and the time to focus on research and writing or access resources, but which are otherwise surrounded by long periods where research is near dormant. Subsequently, international fellowships tend to focus on the middle stages of a research career – by which time many of the obstacles which early career academics encounter will either have been overcome, or they will have long left research ambitions behind.They also tend to focus on a single and specific period of time.A scheme which built funding around the notion of a longer-term relationship between an individual and an overseas institution might go some way to addressing this. The Cambridge/Africa Collaborative Research Programme specifically aims to create long-term partnerships by funding small groups of fellows to spend 6 months in the UK, organised around a particular theme, and following this with a return conference in an African university; such schemes might be linked to the research communities proposed in section 3. [40]
4.16. Enabling scholars to return to a UK or other overseas institution regularly for short periods as part of a hybrid career track (perhaps for several weeks each year for a number of years) would ensure that they did not become isolated,and might help to stimulate research in the home institution.African universities would likewise benefit from retaining their best academics, and from the continued links which such a scheme might encourage. Such an arrangement would also benefit the UK, ensuring that institutions are able to maintain contact with high quality junior researchers but at relatively low cost, and without being in danger of worsening the academic brain-drain.Although developing the initial relationship may take more time, there is no reason why the same scheme might not be extended to researchers gaining their PhDs at home, without prior overseas experience; indeed this would go some way to restoring the balance between home and overseas-trained researchers.Although such a scheme would require additional funding,it could feasibly be managed by existing scholarship agencies without the need for the creation of additional structures.
4.17. Emerging researchers need both time and financial support if they are to be able to advance their research careers, but while institutions typically lack funding to provide their own small grant schemes to encourage this, funders seeking to secure a good return on their investment with minimal risk often prefer to support more senior or established academics. A change of emphasis towards support for early career researchers will be vital if the future research base is to be assured.To enable donors to move towards this, universities will need to demonstrate that they are part of a sufficiently supportive system which will allow them the time and freedom required to produce high quality research. A range of research funding is needed to catalyse research, targeted specifically at early career scholars – from small pilot or exploratory grants to subsequent funding to further develop ideas or promising projects. Grants available within an institution, for release on a competitive basis, but without lengthy application processes, might be valuable; Sida have provided funding for this purpose to a number of universities. In some institutions it may be possible to devote specific funding towards a research grant scheme, whilst donors might consider supporting institutions that are able to present a well-designed scheme but lack the ability to make their own investments. In some cases existing institutional research grants have however not been widely taken up, suggesting that the need for proper forms of accountability must also be balanced with sympathetic arrangements to account for staff who are working under significant time constraints.
Notes
34 See for example an article by University World News in 2007 which reported 45% of professors were due to be retired. ‘Nigeria: Critical shortfall in academic numbers’, 17 February 2008: www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20080214152645863 [return to text]
35 Under the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission Split-Site Scheme, students are registered at their home institution, but benefit from two six month periods (or one 12 month period) attached to a UK institution and with a UK supervisor: www.cscuk.org.uk/apply/splitsite.asp [return to text]
36 Three core courses in theory and methodology are taken, plus a further two in a particular subject area. Students are examined in four of these courses, before beginning their thesis component. www.aercafrica.org/programmes/training_cpp.asp African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) [return to text]
37 African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) Collaborative PhD Programme; around 21 students are sponsored each year, with four universities eligible to host PhDs and teach core courses, and a further four able to award degrees to students who attend core components elsewhere: www.aercafrica.org/programmes/training_cpp.asp. See the presentation by Alex Ezeh, executive director of the Africa Population and Health Research Center’s Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA), at the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa University Leaders' Forum 2008: www.foundation-partnership.org/ulf/ and www.aphrc.org [return to text]
38 The Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA) organise both country and regional level workshops each year on research methodology: www.ossrea.net/training/ [return to text]
39 www.asauk.net/downloads/asauk_teach_fell08.pdf. The ASAUK’s fellowship is for the relatively modest sum of £5000 for 3 months; additional funding would enable additional fellowships to be offered each year. [return to text]
40 Cambridge/Africa Collaborative Research Programme: www.african.cam.ac.uk/grants_cambridge.htm [return to text]
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