Abstract
Africa is a continent of stark contradictions. While there has been significant economic development and resilience through turbulent global events, growth rates across countries differ widely, extreme poverty is still pervasive, and malnutrition remains a critical challenge. To strengthen sustainability and achieve economic competitiveness in Africa, science must be a sound and cutting-edge driver of change—which requires a significant expansion of high-level human capacity. However, many sub-Saharan Africa universities have underdeveloped and struggling research functions that created constraining environments within which postgraduate—in particular, doctoral education—could not flourish. The chapter discusses the need for more doctoral graduates in Africa, the challenges which African institutions must overcome to effectively increase PhD production, and the nature of the needed interventions to address these challenges.
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Notes
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Switzerland (454), Sweden (427), United Kingdom (288), Australia (264), United States (201), France (172), Japan (132), Turkey (48), Mexico (28), and Chile (13).
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- 3.
The African Doctoral Academy, as well as the Southern African Systems Analysis Centre (SASAC), are outstanding examples of sustained engagement of a variety of “new” and innovative approaches that encompass transferable skills.
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Mentz-Coetzee, M., Stroebel, A., Swanepoel, F. (2020). The Significance of Doctoral Education and Training for Development in Sub-Saharan Africa. In: Ndulo, M., Assié-Lumumba, N. (eds) Education and Development. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40566-3_10
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