About us
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The
Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) is an
initiative of nine African universities, four African research
institutes, and selected northern partners. CARTA aims to develop and
deliver an innovative model for doctoral training in sub-Saharan Africa
and to strengthen the capacity of participating institutions to conduct
and lead internationally-competitive research.
Over the
medium-term, CARTA aims to produce a critical mass of high-quality
graduates trained to address the complex issues surrounding health and
development in Africa, and to retain these researchers and scholars in
the region by providing them with a vibrant intellectual environment,
and viable and challenging research and training opportunities. Why
CARTA? The formation of CARTA has been motivated by the great need
facing graduate level training in Africa.
University education
in most sub-Saharan African countries faces many challenges.
Unprecedented growth in student enrolment and the expansion of training
programs, especially at the undergraduate level, have occurred at a time
when per capita funding for universities is being reduced. Many
universities in the region presently operate with overburdened,
underpaid, and disillusioned faculty who take on consultancies to
maintain a basic living standard. The increasing exodus of human capital
from the academic and research fields in Africa has, inter alia, led to
the continent's decreasing share of global scientific output and
contributes to the widening gap in science and technology and health
status between Africa and other continents.
While the above
problems affect university programs in Africa across the board, they
have had a disproportionate impact on graduate studies, particularly,
doctoral training. Most leading African scholars and faculty today are
products of fellowship programs that facilitated their training at top
Northern universities between the 1970s and the early 1990s. Such
opportunities are not only rare today, but also only a minority of those
trained overseas in the recent past return to academic and research
positions in the region. Further, the cost of overseas programs has gone
up and the relevance of some of the overseas training programs for
Africa's development needs is now a source of concern.
Taken
together, these imply that the next generation of African scholars and
researchers will be trained here on the continent. Currently, students
in graduate programs on the continent face a number of challenges
including poor quality supervision; limited exposure to current methods
and debates; weak academic and research environments; and lack of role
models/ mentors, strong academic and research networks, opportunities to
participate in international conferences, and funding.
These
factors, coupled with weak Master's degree programs and PhD bythesis-
only, undermine the technical competence and quality of graduates of
African doctoral programs. Given the increasingly important role of
African universities in training the next generation of African scholars
and researchers at masters and doctoral levels, enhancing the quality
of graduate training on the continent is critical to preventing further
deterioration in the quality of university education in Africa in
general, and of research capacity, in particular. |
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