2ND CARTA VICE CHANCELLOR'S MEETING CARTA 2ND VICE CHANCELLORS MEETING REPORT | Page 32

© Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) & University of Nairobi (UoN)
SESSION V
PRESENTATION ONE: EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES FOR DOCTORAL AND RESEARCH
TRAINING: SHARING EXPERIENCES
By Prof. Peter M.F. Mbithi – Vice-Chancellor, University of Nairobi
This presentation shared experiences of challenges encountered by PhD training in African Universities
and proposed some interventions that should be considered to enhance the capacity for research
training in African universities.
Prof. Mbithi began the presentation by indicating that universities play both direct instrumentalist
(service role) and the indirect “an engine of development” role which is on strengthening knowledge
production and research. He then pointed out PhD degree qualification has been adopted as the
minimum qualification for University teaching staff in Kenya and many African countries yet there is a
shortage of lecturers and researchers with PhDs.
To give a background on Research Training in African Universities, Prof. Mbithi specified that Africa’s
research performance on the global stage is not encouraging. South Africa for instance is the only
country ranked at top 30 countries by the 2016 Times Higher Education (THE) world university
ranking in Africa with high research funding capacity globally. The University of Cape Town was
featured as the top institution thanks to its highly-cited research, strong international outlook and
ability to attract large sums of money from industry through partnerships. Further, Cape Town
University’s success is attributed to the fact that as at 2011, the University was having more than 30%
of its students as postgraduates and almost 62% of its permanent academics had doctoral degrees.
Challenges facing doctoral training in Africa
1. Low Number of Postgraduates & Academics holding Doctoral degrees
The ideal target of staff size with doctoral degrees should be at least 50% of the permanent faculty
which only a few Universities in Africa have attained. The figure below shows the proportions of the
permanent academic staff across 8 universities in Africa in 2011.
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University Proportion of permanent academic staff
with doctoral degrees as a % total
faculty
1. Botswana 65
2. Cape-town 63
3. Dar esalam 45
4. Eduardo Mondlane 17
5. Ghana 50
6. Makerere 43
7. Mauritius 42
8. University of Nairobi 45
CARTA’s 2 nd Vice Chancellor’s Meeting –Report of meeting proceedings – July 10-11, 2017