© Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa( CARTA) & University of Nairobi( UoN)
office before submitting their work just to check if there are any innovations that needs to be protected.
2. UoN has been striving to increase the number of patents over the last five years. Products emanating from UoN are for the public good. One of the challenges faced is that the royalties paid to UoN have to be followed up constantly from the companies commercializing the IP from UoN students work. Audits are also being done to find out what IP rights are lying around for commercialization.
3. The World International Property office was approached to fund all colleges for IP purposes particularly from the College of Biological and Physical Sciences( CBPS) and College of Health Sciences( CHS) at the University of Nairobi. There are incubation hubs within UoN, which contribute to intellectual property rights. The next strategy is to institute a Technology Transfer Office.
4. In UoN’ s promotion criteria, patents are also recognized and this acts as an incentive to researchers.
Prof. Abel Idowu Olayinka: Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan
1. Emphasis should be placed on postgraduate students enrollment and training. When it comes to undergraduate admission, governments have joint admissions boards to admit students and the undergraduate populations are larger compared to postgraduate. Undergraduate programmes are not charged tuition free but postgraduate programs attract a tuition fee, which is sometimes difficult for student to pay. For science-based courses, there is an additional bench fee. Government funding is therefore very important to supplement postgraduate programs.
2. Most universities use the fee from postgraduate students to subsidize undergraduate costs because the funding from government is never enough.
Prof. Adam Mahomed Habib- Vice Chancellor, University of the Witwatersrand
1. In 2013, 28 % of students at the University of the Witwatersrand were postgraduate students and in 2017, the percentage increased to 36 %. The University is striving to raise the percentage to over 45 % by 2022.
2. As the postgraduate numbers go up, the undergraduate numbers have gone down at the University of the Witwatersrand. Financing of higher education has changed systematically. Staff PhDs are now up to 62 % and research output was over 54 % in 2016. Access to PhD programs must be increased in order to push up PhD numbers. Universities must consider offering more scholarships for postgraduate.
3. If PhD students finish their degrees on time, universities could consider giving back their fees as a way of motivation for faster completion of PhD studies. Unfortunately students still take too long to finish their PhD studies and this is caused by the fact that they have to work at the same time. To change this culture, the average age of PhD students should be shifted to late 20s. Focus should be on a strategy to increase PhD students’ enrollment from the late 20s age.
4. Industry partnerships should be explored. Universities should have industry partnerships with multinationals like IBM. For instance, the University of the Witwatersrand’ s innovation startup of a new diagnostic for TB was taken up by IBM and has already started earning profits within 18 months. The industry partners will help to incubate great ideas from students.
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CARTA’ s 2 nd Vice Chancellor’ s Meeting – Report of meeting proceedings – July 10-11, 2017