The UG Pan-African Doctoral Academy (UG-PADA) is an academy set to make PhD training within the West African sub-region more competitive and equip PhD products with the requisite critical intellectual thinking that will enhance their ability to succeed in their chosen careers and have the capacity to make more meaningful contribution to national development agendas and global knowledge generation.
In short, UG-PADA seeks to provide focused attention on specific skill gaps and opportunities for improving the knowledge of doctoral candidates.
The Academy has been running Doctoral Schools which are open to PhD students from the University of Ghana as well as students from other Universities in the Sub-Region.
The Doctoral Schools are run with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the tuition for participants are therefore highly subsidized.
The Doctoral Schools are usually oversubscribed and this reflects the urgent need for more of such schools to try to meet the needs of the doctoral candidates.
The January 2017 Schools run from January 16th to the 20th for the first School and 23rd to 27th January 2017 for the second.
It is worth noting that these Schools are actually the 7th and 8th in the series of Schools so far run by the UG-Pan African Doctoral Academy (UG-PADA) for PhD students under the sponsorship from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
A group of Nigerian and Senegalese PhD Students at both Schools
This year’s Schools attracted for the first time PhD students from Senegal and Niger. The school registered some ten students from the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal and the Abdou Moumouni University of Niamey, Niger.
The majority of students however came from the University of Ghana. There were also a sizeable number of students from other Universities in Ghana including GIMPA and several students from various Universities in Nigeria including students from the University of Ibadan, University of Ilorin, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. These Universities had their students enrolled and attending some of the previous Schools run by the UG Pan-African Doctoral Academy (UG-PADA).
There were also first time applicants from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Babcock University, Ogun State, both in Nigeria and from the Norwegian University of Science in Norway.
Some students from the Abdou Moumouni University of Niamey, Niger.
For the first School of the two Schools, 3 different Modules were taught simultaneously and participants were taken through interesting sessions under these Modules: Managing the Doctoral Process (including Managing Literature Review), Quantitative Research Techniques Using SPSS, and Innovative Thinking.
For the second School,2 Modules:Qualitative Research Methodology with NVIVO, and Presentation Skills (Including Conference Presentations-Oral /Poster Preparations) were run.
The Schools were run at the facilities of the Centre for African Wetlands and as usual the Schools were well attended with most Modules over-subscribed.
The Instructors at the Schools, drawn from various disciplines across the University of Ghana, are seasoned and accomplished academics.
The participants had a lot of positive things to say about the Schools. One Participant described the Schools as ‘well organized, well delivered and highly informative’ and another said ‘the content and facilitators were good’. Most Participants described the Schools as extremely useful and outstanding and many recommended that participation in the Schools should be made compulsory for all PhD students of the University of Ghana.
At the end of each School, Participants were presented with Certificates of Participation.
The Dean of the School of Graduate Studies, presenting a certificate to a Participant
The positive feed-back is a clear indication that the Doctoral Schools are achieving the goals set by the Academy to equip PhD scholars with methodological skills, scholarship, counselling, mentoring and career development guidance; supervisory skills and introduce them to methods of teaching and learning that will enhance their capability to train other future academics.
The general observation on the schools can be summed up by quoting one more student who wrote:
‘Honestly, I am so impressed and have a real sense of direction now, and please can all PhD students get enrolled into this programme.’
The next round of Schools are expected to be rolled out in June 2017.
Participants of the Presentation Skills Module proudly displaying their Certificates
