Tag: PedaL

Long accused of being inflexible, African universities have, through a partnership-based research initiative focused on public policy, helped uncover a long-hidden truth: “Universities are not only open to innovative ideas and programmes but can also domesticate, own, finance and nurture them.”

This is according to Beatrice Muganda, programme Director for the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research or PASGR.

Three years ago, PASGR initiated a regional masters in research and public policy. Today it is producing a strong generation of African public policy leaders.

In a review of the programme, Muganda said the universities have effectively integrated the new Master’s programme into their systems, and are meeting the operational costs associated with its delivery.

The programme has drawn attention to the study of public policy as distinct from public administration and management and catalysed the establishment of schools of public policy in South Africa.

“It has raised the profile of participating universities as powerhouses of robust debates on public policy informed by various lenses of opinions by students from various academic and work backgrounds or experience,” she said in an interview with University World News.

There are now 13 universities that offer the programme, namely Nairobi, Egerton, Maseno, Uganda Martyrs, Uganda Christian, Botswana, Dar es Salaam, Mzumbe, Ghana, Lagos, Jos, Ibadan and Sierra Leone.

Between 2014 and 2017, 415 students have enrolled in the programme, surpassing the target by 115 students. The retention rate of 85% is high, with the mostly fee-paying students showing impressive performances.

Filling a gap in research and policy

“It demonstrates amazing faith in the programme to fill a gap in research and public policy,” Muganda, said, adding that masters graduation rates have improved from 19% (achieved in South Africa) to 39%, which is unrivalled by other graduate programmes in African countries.

A total of 30 students have graduated from the first cohort of 77 and 59% of the students are working in advocacy NGOs, research organisations and in various policy-related work in governments.

For example, David Yusuf Segun of the University of Lagos in Nigeria won a fellowship to present a paper at the Resilience 2017 conference on Resilience Frontiers for Global Sustainability in Stockholm, Sweden in August this year, while Kenneth Ogutu, together with his supervisor Professor Mark Okere of Egerton University in Kenya, jointly developed an award-winning proposal on the effects of community policing policy on crime in low-income areas of Nakuru County, Kenya.

Muganda said the programme had produced growth and development in departments and policy centres in terms of teaching and learning materials, and technology. There had also been an increase in staff numbers and improvement of staff capacity.

“We have seen increased attention paid to the dynamics of teaching and learning in university programmes as opposed to enrolments and graduation statistics,” she said.

The two-year Masters treats public policy as an area for research as well as professional practice while focusing on African policy priorities. It draws on multiple social sciences to ground students in relevant theory and concepts.

Muganda said the programme was aimed at social science researchers and policy practitioners. The research option in the programme is designed to build competencies in the design and execution of policy-relevant research or provide sound grounding for doctoral programmes and advanced scholarship in universities and other organisations that undertake research, she said.

The policy practitioner option equips graduates to use research to influence, inform or shape public policy in government, public and private sector organisations in general, civil society organisations, media, and regional and international organisations.

Programme spinoffs

The programme has produced rich training material, and training in innovative pedagogy for university teaching staff can be taken up and offered to other university teaching staff outside of the degree programme.

According to Muganda, there are 38 case studies on African public policy issues authored by teaching staff from African universities available to be used to teach social science programmes on the continent, while there are 24 content videos that can be used to deliver social science programmes.

One of the biggest challenges facing the programme is limited scholarships. Currently, there are 10 scholarships available from the German Academic Exchange Service or DAAD catering for East Africa, and a few from the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung foundation.

According to Muganda, the initiative is exploring partnerships with governments to support students on the programme. This has worked effectively in Tanzania while other discussions are ongoing.

“MRPP [Masters in research and public policy] students understand that education cannot be advanced sustainably through dependence. They are therefore willing to invest in themselves, to develop competencies that can enable them to participate in shaping their destinies and those of other citizens through sound public policy and leadership,” she said.

The success of the programme has brought additional challenges in the form of growing interest from other universities wishing to join the MRPP network. “This requires additional resources so we keep fundraising,” said Muganda.

Teaching incentives

Muganda said they have limited incentives for rewarding teaching excellence and the partnership is engaging universities to develop and implement micro policies that recognise and reward teaching excellence and support teachers in showcasing their expertise to colleagues in other universities under a staff mobility programme.

PASGR hopes to keep training a critical mass of teaching staff and develop a system for inducting and mentoring new teachers who join the partnership to keep the work going, she said.

“One of our challenges has been limited connectivity and access to internet services which frustrates the creation and use of online digital content,” said Muganda. The solution has been to encourage non-web-based local area network-based solutions – intranet – and encourage universities to tap into the existing national research and educational networks.

“Our programme still needs to do more in bringing African policy-makers and researchers together to facilitate uptake of emerging research findings to influence public policy for the well-being of all,” she said.

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Participants at a policy forum in Lagos have criticised the continued erosion of the autonomy of local governments in the country and called for the restructuring of the political system to facilitate development.

They expressed regret that local governments are not allowed to play their roles as assigned to them in the constitution.

With the theme: “Thinking Public Policies Theories with Practice,” the forum was organised by the Alumni/Master Class of Research and Public Policy (MRPP), of University of Lagos, the event was part of efforts designed to factor in the people in the grassroots to participate in the political process. The Team Leader of the forum, Mr. Idris Rufai said the essence of the programme was to place the local government system in its right perspective and to put policy theories to practice.

The Chairman of Lagos State Local Government Commission, Mr. Babatunde Rotinwa, noted that poor implementation was largely responsible for policy failures in the country, adding that local governments were created to reach the grassroots. But, he stressed that the objective has not been realized.

“It is not the policy that is the problem; it is poor implementation. Local governments have policies but they are being implemented,” he said
Former Dean of the School of Post-Graduate Studies, Prof. Solomon Akinboye, a professor of International Relations at Department of Political science, University of Lagos, who was among the panelists said local governments were designed to bring government closer to the people, adding that it is through public policy that problems get solved.

He said the character of the Nigerian state, was largely responsible for poor policy failures even as he called for the full engagement of the people in the grassroots in the political process.

Mr. Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, who was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for Lagos West Senatorial in the last general elections as well as a graduate of MRPP, called for more decentralisation of power to serve the grassroots better.
He expressed displeasure about the structure of the Nigerian political system, saying it does not give room for active participation of the people at the grassroots.

Rhodes-Vivour argued that the autonomy of the local government authorities in the country have been completely eroded.
“There should be a public orientation to educate to know their rights,” he suggested.

In his contribution, the Chairman of Lagos Island East Local Development Area (LCDA), Kamai Salau-Bashua, who was also among the discussants, said in spite of the infringement on the functions of third-tier government in Nigeria, local governments in Lagos State have made tremendous improvements in the delivery of public goods, even better than their counterparts in other parts of the country.

He said in the last four months, local governments in the country have been receiving their allocations directly from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences of University of Lagos, Prof. Funmi Banmeke and the MRPP Programme Coordinator, Department of Political Science, Dr. Maryam Quadri, said the views of participants would be put across to all the three tiers of government in the country.

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On 25th October, the British Council  co-hosted a high-level conference on Africa-Europe collaboration in Higher Education, a joint initiative by the European Commission, the African Union Commission and four European partner organisations that have a long history of cooperation with the African continent – British Council, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Campus France and Nuffic Netherlands.

The conference was structured around a series of workshops in which more than 400 policy-makers and representatives of the higher education sector from Africa and Europe discussed different aspects of collaboration in higher education between the two continents, and the challenges and opportunities stemming from higher education. A poster session showcased a wide range of initiatives and projects implemented by African and European partners. The event also provided sector-specific policy recommendations on how to further develop the charter “Investing in people by investing in education and skills” of the Africa-Europe Alliance, first announced by President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker in September 2018. One central demand is that higher education and skills will feature prominently in the 6th Africa-EU summit, due to take place in 2020.

 “We recognise that higher education and skills acquisition are critical enablers for young people, allowing them to build sustainable livelihoods for themselves and others. Over 70% of Africa’s population are aged 18-35 so the need for higher education and skills is rising. We are responding to this demographic demand by expanding our higher education and skills programme and working with partners in African universities so that more of these young people can fulfil their potential.” said Louisa Waddingham, British Council’s Portfolio Lead for Higher Education, ahead of the event.

British Council works with governments, education and training institutions, industries, academics, and international donors to provide international education opportunities and improve the quality of higher education across Sub-Saharan Africa. By sharing international best practice and creating opportunities for dialogue, collaboration, research exchange, and mobility, the British Council helps to improve learning and employability outcomes for students, scholars, researchers, and academics. Most notably, the annual Going Global conference offers an open forum for global leaders of international education to discuss issues facing the international education community. Through the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research, the British Council’s project team helps to increase the capacity of African universities and researchers to conduct research that directly contributes to social and public policy in Africa.

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The requirement for college speakers to have the academic aptitudes that can engage understudies to procure 21st century abilities and assume liability for their learning in a procedure of co-development of information was featured at the opening whole session of the Partnership for Pedagogical Leadership in Africa (PedaL) West African center point preparing which occurred in Accra, Ghana in August.

More than 140 scholarly staff from African colleges speaking to all Sub-Saharan areas went to the preparation facilitated by the University of Ghana and co-gathered by the Nairobi-headquartered Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR) and PedaL accomplices: Institute of Development Studies and the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom; African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA); University of Ibadan; University of Dar es Salaam; Uganda Martyrs University and Egerton University.

Members called for ordinary updates and boost preparing in academic authority for school personnel to guarantee that instructing and learning is satisfactorily reacting to the difficulties of globalization, while likewise tending to nearby needs.

PedaL is an African-drove activity and one of nine projects upheld by Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education Innovations and Reforms (SPHEIR) under the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). Since its dispatch a year ago, it has seen exceptional development as college scholastics from over the mainland look to improve their instructing rehearses.

Until now, PedaL has prepared more than 800 scholarly staff drawn from 40 colleges crosswise over Africa. It is obvious that PedaL’s objective of preparing 1,000 school personnel in three years will be outperformed because of interest.

The instructional method envelops differed methodologies planned for changing the learning knowledge and accomplishing improved results in alumni sociology programs. The abilities picked up incorporate innovation upgraded learning, valuable arrangement of courses, a scope of understudy focused instructional methods, for example, contextual investigation educating, limit idea devices, just as a scope of issue-based learning procedures and creative evaluation methodologies.

Remarking on the significance of the preparation, Dr. Beatrice Muganda, PASGR’s executive for advanced education and the PedaL group pioneer, stated: “The accentuation set on 21st-century abilities implies that training perfection upheld in PedaL for personnel improvement has turned out to be much increasingly vital for fulfillment of college missions.”

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Title: Programme Officer (Higher Education Programme)

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

 Open to: Kenyan Residents and Nationals

Type of contract: Fixed Term

Application deadline: Monday, October 14, 2019 (1700hrs Kenyan Time)

Background

The Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR) is an independent, non-partisan pan-African not-for-profit organization established in 2011 and located in Nairobi, Kenya. PASGR works to enhance research excellence in governance and public policy that contributes to the overall wellbeing of all.

PASGR is the lead partner in Pedagogical Leadership in Africa (PedaL). PedaL is one of nine partnerships supported by Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education Innovation and Reform (SPHEIR). SPHEIR was established by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) to deliver systemic and sustainable change within higher education systems, enabling them to meet labour market needs and generate the job-ready, entrepreneurial graduates needed to accelerate development, build inclusive societies and promote strong economic growth.  SPHEIR partnerships seek to transform the quality, relevance, access and affordability of higher education to achieve sustainable, systemic change.

In support of its work, PASGR seeks to recruit a Programme Officer to work within the Higher Education Programme. The right candidate should provide programmatic and technical support for successful implementation of programme activities in universities across the continent. S/He will report directly to the Director of Higher Education Programme (HEP).

Summary of Key Responsibilities

  • Support programme development and implementation: work closely with partner universities and an array of experts to design and roll out relevant programmes by undertaking background work, research, curricula reviews and writing strategy papers and presentation materials, and review and report progress in programme implementation;
  • Promote partnerships: as primary contact between stakeholders and the partners, the officer will work collaboratively with partners to create, implement and sustain project initiatives and will support a rapidly expanding Community of Practice. S/He will undertake outreach to specific partner institutions as well as relevant regional and international organizations;
  • Organize consultations and convenings: identify issues, information needs and consultation activities associated with development of the program; initiate and supervise consultative activities;
  • Support Higher Education communications: provide technical support
  • Any other duties assigned by PASGR Leadership.

Minimum Qualifications:

  • A Masters in Education or Social Sciences related field as a minimum; PhD qualification would be an added advantage;
  • Minimum of five years’ experience in developing, implementing and evaluating programs/ projects in knowledge institutions and systems of which at least two must be at a national or regional level;
  • Sound knowledge of issues in African Higher Education and Development gained from working experience in the African region;
  • Ability to solve problems creatively, pay attention to detail and exercise good judgement;
  • Hands-on experience in new forms of Information Communication Technology particularly Technology Enhanced Learning;
  • Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work well in a diverse team, and interact professionally with partners, donors stakeholders and staff at all levels of the organization

Salary:

This position attracts a competitive package and benefits.

Application process:

Applications must be submitted electronically via email to PASGR(recruitment@pasgr.org) by Monday 14, October 2019 at 1700hrs. Canvassing will lead to disqualification.

All applications must contain:

  1. Application letter stating why you are best suited for this role
  2. Curriculum Vitae with a list of 3 references

PASGR is an Equal Opportunity Employer

The need for university lecturers to possess the pedagogical skills that can empower students to acquire 21st century skills and take responsibility for their learning in a process of co-construction of knowledge was highlighted at the opening plenary session of the Partnership for Pedagogical Leadership in Africa (PedaL) West African hub training which took place in Accra, Ghana in August.

Over 140 academic staff from African universities representing all Sub-Saharan regions attended the training hosted by the University of Ghana and co-convened by the Nairobi-headquartered Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR) and PedaL partners: Institute of Development Studies and the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom; African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA); University of Ibadan; University of Dar es Salaam; Uganda Martyrs University and Egerton University.

Participants called for regular updates and refresher training in pedagogical leadership for teaching staff to ensure that teaching and learning are adequately responding to the challenges of globalisation, while also addressing local needs.

African-led initiative

PedaL is an African-led initiative and one of nine programmes supported by Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education Innovations and Reforms (SPHEIR) under the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development. Since its launch last year, it has witnessed unprecedented growth as university academics from across the continent seek to enhance their teaching practices.

To date, PedaL has trained over 800 academic staff drawn from 40 universities across Africa. It is evident that PedaL’s target of training 1,000 teaching staff in three years will be surpassed due to demand.

The pedagogy encompasses varied approaches aimed at transforming the learning experience and achieving improved outcomes in graduate social science programmes. The skills gained include technology-enhanced learning, constructive alignment of courses, a range of student-centred pedagogies such as case study teaching, threshold concept tools, as well as a range of problem-based learning strategies and innovative assessment strategies.

Commenting on the importance of the training, Dr. Beatrice Muganda, PASGR’s director for higher education and PedaL team leader, said: “The emphasis placed on 21st century skills means that teaching excellence espoused in PedaL for faculty development has become even more central for attainment of university missions.”

Professor Tade Aina, PASGR executive director, described PedaL as a home-grown solution that promotes excellence in teaching and learning based on global standards.

“PedaL is subverting teaching and learning in African universities and the policy environment on the continent is ripe for this transformation,” he said.

Mainstreaming

Highlighting PedaL’s multi-stakeholder approach, Professor Kwame Offei, pro-vice-chancellor for academic and student affairs from the University of Ghana, said African universities need to produce graduates who can respond to the needs of the continent and contribute to its social and economic development. He urged other African universities to embrace pedagogical innovations to broaden and deepen learning outcomes. Offei said PedaL was gaining popularity across Africa and that plans were already underway to mainstream PedaL in academic programmes at the University of Ghana.

Professor Kwesi Yankah, Ghana’s minister of state for tertiary education, said improving the quality of teaching in African universities will produce excellent researchers to drive the continent’s development agenda. Yankah, who is a professor of linguistics and oral literature, and a fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, said African universities should include effective teaching in the criteria used to promote academics.

He noted that African universities almost exclusively concentrate on research and publication when it comes to promotion, and sometimes consider effective teaching only as an afterthought. “We need to shift,” Yankah said, arguing for more partnerships between academia and the private sector to help bridge gaps between academia and industry.

Modern technology

PASGR’s Founding Chairman and ARUA Secretary-General Professor Ernest Aryeetey urged universities to increase investments in modern technologies that could help to meet the expectations of students.

“Every African university should realise that the way students are trained globally has changed from simply lecturing,” said Aryeetey, adding that Africa has to catch up with the rest of the world.

Professor Samuel Agyei-Mensah, provost of the college of humanities at the University of Ghana, said creating an environment for teaching excellence required leadership, the allocation of resources, improvement of facilities and the provision of robust technology.

He revealed that plans were underway for the University of Ghana to open a centre for teaching and learning that will enhance student-centred innovative teaching and learning. “My hope is for faculty development to flourish and be seen as critical to the goals of higher education,” said Agyei-Mensah. He said PedaL will be critical in the new centre.

Professor Idowu Olayinka, the vice-chancellor of the University of Ibadan and ARUA chairman, said every university on the continent needs to put its academic staff through PedaL training. He said his university had fully embraced PedaL and had started cascading the PedaL training to various faculties. He said all the university’s postgraduate programmes were undergoing review to incorporate PedaL innovations.

Professor Sulyman Abdulkareem, vice-chancellor of Nigeria’s University of Ilorin, said faculty development was important because good learning can only happen after effective teaching. “Just giving pieces of information or knowledge through lectures should not be considered teaching,” he said.

Blend of tradition and global best practice

Speaking to University World News, Abdulkareem said the strength of the PedaL approach was that it blended traditional methods of teaching in Africa with global best practice, helping with self-assessment and improved teaching. He argued for the use of student assessments of lecturers as one of the tools to measure learning effectiveness. “Such assessments should not be used to punish lecturers but to help them improve,” he said.

Abdulkareem said PedaL strategies helped students with practical learning and to conceptualise what they are taught. “If teaching is done properly, African universities will churn out graduates who can innovate and create solutions to the problems affecting the continent.”

He urged universities to shun abstract teaching and embrace simulations and practicals in their academic programmes.

“I came here with a problem and found a solution; I will be a PedaL champion in Nigeria and beyond”, Abdulkareem said.

On the future of PedaL, Muganda said the programme had successfully mobilised resources from participating universities to broaden access for a larger number of academic staff than was initially planned and with additional resources.

“The potential to shake every part of this continent with pedagogical innovations is imminent,” she said.

This has been reposted from https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20190918130200403

A four-year leadership training programme aimed at vice-chancellors, principals and deans of 54 African universities has proved popular among university leaders and a third phase is planned, according to its organisers.

Participants of the Capacity Strengthening Programme for Leadership in African Universities, funded by the Mastercard Foundation and implemented jointly by the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR) and the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), said the training had helped them to reflect more deeply on their characteristics and effectiveness as leaders.

“African universities need to recognise that there is no replacement for thought leadership as innovation and advancement at universities is dependent on the quality of its leadership,” said Dr. Anthony Egeru, RUFORUM’s acting deputy executive secretary for programme development and implementation.

Quality leadership

According to Egeru, for Africa to have quality universities, there must be quality leadership. “Thus a deliberate training approach and immersion programmes in African universities should be started, and those that exist need to be further strengthened at the university level,” Egeru told University World News.

Egeru said for a long time universities had been viewed as places for developing great ideas. “However, they have not been able to earn credibility as places for turning ideas into actionable solutions, which would help them create avenues for influencing societies, government, and the global environment.”

Based on the feedback from a survey received in June, university leaders believe there is also a need to train university council members as this could help improve relationships between the universities’ governing councils and management. “They need to come together and make joint decisions to improve service delivery in both the academic and administrative fields,” Egeru said.

In the survey, leaders reported that the training had enabled them to better rally stakeholders to share their vision and had helped to improve standards in teaching and examination administration, to motivate research leaders and to enhance leadership capacity at lower levels.

Universities as complex entities

The leadership initiative had its roots in a meeting of university vice-chancellors held in Cape Town, South Africa, four years ago. A number of issues facing university leadership were identified in search of a pathway to achieving the goals of the First African Higher Education Summit held in 2015 in Senegal, requiring African higher education institutions to commit themselves to excellence in teaching and learning, research and scholarship, public service and the provision of solutions to development challenges and opportunities.

“Leadership in our universities needs to respond to and be proactive about both internal and complex issues and partnerships and the external drives including problems such as climate change, mass migrations, and the rapidly changing technologies and cultures,” said Professor Tade Aina, PASGR executive director and a mastermind of the initiative. “We started this initiative based on the need for strategic management of complex organisations … seeing universities as complex systems in fast-changing times,” said Aina.

According to Dr. Beatrice Muganda, director of higher education at PASGR, issues identified by vice-chancellors at the Cape Town meeting included resource mobilisation, management of spiralling enrolments, aging professoriates, the challenge of forming and sustaining partnerships, and managing conflict. “External interference, as well as tribal and racial politics in the management of universities, ranked high on the list of bottlenecks,” she said.

Programme design

RUFORUM Executive Secretary Professor Adipala Ekwamu said the programme was designed to enable university leaders to “champion transformation of African universities into effective research and training institutions with strong frameworks and mechanisms for implementation of the vision and mission of their universities”.

Ekwamu said the basis of the leadership initiative was to enable people to “examine their own potential; their strengths and weaknesses and how they can be strengthened”.

According to RUFORUM and PASGR, the Mastercard-funded training has been critical in providing an avenue for dialogue and feedback from principals, deans, and vice-chancellors.

“The deans acknowledge that leading from the middle is quite challenging and their voices are often not heard in the right places or at the right time,” says Muganda. “This often leads to a time lag in translating ideas into actions.”

Mainstreaming leadership training

Ekwamu said there is also a need for leadership training for mid-level leaders such as directors and heads of departments, and to this end, RUFORUM had built leadership training into its Ph.D. and post-doctoral training so as to “mainstream” leadership capacity building.

Egeru, who is also the programme manager for training and community development says that RUFORUM is linking with other partners strategically to deliver the training onwards to more university leaders and managers.

Additionally, the RUFORUM board has approved the establishment of the African Agricultural Research and Policy Academy that will in part anchor leadership training for the Africa region besides the policy analysis for the region.

“We are also building a cadre of early-career scientists through the leadership training programme as part of grooming the next generation of university managers,” said Egeru.

The third phase of training will take place from 2-6 December this year at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and more vice-chancellors and deans will be invited to reflect upon and learn from their leadership experiences, according to Muganda.

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AAU Talks host, Kwesi Sam interviews Dr. Akosua Agyemang, Department of Social Work, University of Ghana on her PedaL journey.

Kwesi Sam- AAU Talks hosts Dr. Ekua Ekumah, Immediate Past HoD, Department of Theater Arts, University of Ghana.