University of Pretoria

The University of Pretoria’s School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) will offer a new PhD programme in Public Policy, and prospective students will be able to apply for it in 2021.
This development comes as a result of engagements between the SPMA and the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR) in 2019, when UP staff met with Dr Beatrice Muganda, Dr Pauline Ngimwa and Executive Director Professor Tade Aina from PASGR.
“The University has recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement with PASGR and we believe this will just strengthen the very good relationship the SPMA has formed with PASGR over the last year,” says Prof Natasja Holtzhausen, SPMA PhD coordinator.
One of the discussion points was a PhD programme with a strong policy focus. With the support of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences and University management, Prof Holtzhausen and SPMA colleagues wrote a proposal that was submitted to all the relevant university committees to obtain permission for a degree that specialises in public policy. Top prospective students from across the continent were targeted. The Carnegie Foundation made 15 full scholarships available to fund exceptional PhD students. These 15 scholarships were shared among the three universities that were piloting the PhD, these being the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, the University of Nairobi in Kenya, and the University of Pretoria.
The first students, mainly from Uganda and Nigeria, enrolled at UP in January 2020, but under the PhD Public Administration and Management programme. The PhD degree in Public Policy has since been approved by Senate and as of 2021, prospective students will be able to apply for this specific degree.

This has been reposted from https://www.up.ac.za/school-of-public-management-and-administration/news/post_2929457-spma-to-offer-new-phd-in-public-policy

University of Pretoria (UP) Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Tawana Kupe and Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR) Executive Director Professor Tade Aina formalised the strategic partnership between the two institutions during a virtual signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Monday, 21 September.

PASGR is a pan-African non-profit organisation established in 2011 and located in Nairobi, Kenya, with engagements in over 25 African countries focused on enhancing research excellence in governance and public policy for society’s overall well-being. The strategic partnership between UP and PASGR will be anchored by the collaborative Master’s Programme in Research and Public Policy and the Doctoral Programme in Public Policy offered together with the University of Ibadan and University of Nairobi. Collaboration will also focus on research and policy training for early and mid-career researchers, and collaborative research grants on important policy issues in Africa.

The partnership with PASGR is very much aligned to UP’s strategic goal to become the leading African-global university. This strategic goal seeks to develop a globally competitive and recognised research institution responsive to societal challenges, particularly in Africa. UP’s four transdisciplinary platforms, (i) the Future Africa Campus and Institute, (ii) Javett Art Centre, (iii) Engineering 4.0, and Innovation Africa@UP will play a leading role in this regard. For the UP-PASGR collaboration, Future Africa will be an instrumental science-policy platform for hosting transdisciplinary teams of researchers and practitioners, including policymakers from the continent and the rest of the world in the co-creation of knowledge to address complex governance and public policy challenges facing Africa.

During the virtual ceremony, Prof Kupe noted that “this MoU provides a visible manifestation of agreed strategic collaboration and a shared commitment to the leveraging of our collective intellectual capital, expertise, resources, and capacities in the advancement of our well-aligned visions and strategic priorities”.

PASGR Executive Director Prof Aina added that the MoU “is also a reinforcement for building the next generation of public policy researchers and leaders in Africa”.

This has been reposted from https://www.up.ac.za/news/post_2924288-up-formalises-strategic-alliance-with-the-partnership-for-african-social-and-governance-research-pasgr

A new partnership between South Africa’s University of Pretoria and the Kenya-headquartered Partnership for African Social Governance Research (PASGR) will boost capacity-building, especially for postgraduate students and early- to mid-career researchers in Africa.

The collaboration, formalised this week (21 September) during a virtual meeting of senior staff from the two institutions and other higher education experts from Africa, will be led by the University of Pretoria (UP) and PASGR and implemented in collaboration with Nigeria’s University of Ibadan and Kenya’s University of Nairobi.

The partnership will be anchored under five flagship programmes of PASGR, including the collaborative doctoral programme in public policy to be offered by UP, University of Ibadan and University of Nairobi. For this programme, PASGR has received seed funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to support 15 fellows and pilot the doctoral programme at the three universities.

Other programmes include a collaborative masters programme in research and public policy; a pedagogical leadership in Africa programme; a research and policy training programme for early- to mid-career researchers; and collaborative research grants relating to important public policy issues in Africa.

According to a statement about the partnership, it will also focus on strengthening public policy through other initiatives such as the research partnership programme between UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the African Research Universities Alliance’s (ARUA) Food Systems Research Networks for Africa project which seeks to “strengthen food systems research capabilities and the translation of evidence into implementable policy solutions and practical interventions” in support of the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development.

“Partnerships are key to how higher education should be reimagined post COVID-19,” said UP Vice-Chancellor Professor Tawana Kupe.

“This collaboration will establish a model for partnership between universities and non-profit organisations,” said Kupe.

PASGR Executive Director Professor Tade Aina described the partnership as another “landmark event” in building excellence in social sciences, the arts and humanities.

“This is an intellectual and academic relationship that is central to Africa and will bring out the innovation, creativity and work needed to build the continent,” said Aina.

He said despite the challenges facing African universities and countries, the partnership should pave the way for further collaborations aimed at building better universities.

UP Director of Institutional Planning Dr Gerald Ouma said collaborations had become a necessity and this was amplified by COVID-19. He said the continent would need more international networks of collaboration to support young and upcoming academics and early- to mid-career researchers.

Dr Beatrice Muganda, Director of Higher Education Programme at PASGR, said the partnership would help students across Africa to develop competencies for shaping public policy across a wide spectrum of sectors, from social issues such as identity crises, to migration, security, food systems and public health.

She said it would help students and academics from Africa to benefit from the knowledge and skills of the host universities.

Kupe described the partnership as a South-South collaboration that will help develop knowledge that can be translated into programmes solving critical issues of development in Africa.

Professor Karuti Kanyinga, a PASGR board member, said it would give international visibility to African intellectual products and help to drive an agenda that is anchored on African ideals and help to bridge interdisciplinary gaps.

Kanyinga expressed concern that many countries in Africa still neglect research and evidence in policy-making, a culture the partnership will endeavour to change, he said. “This partnership will help lobby African governments to use evidence in decision-making. The more we have such partnerships, the greater the voice of African scholars in policy-making.”

This has been reposted from https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=2020092313380718