The purpose of the current project is to continue the action to reinforce capacities at doctorate level by the partner universities. The relevance of the action to produce 25 doctors to ease the constraints on teaching staff in the universities and economics training and research centres in the CIEREA network had long been established.
Furthermore, this project contributes to the training in Africa of high-level economists up to international standards and at affordable cost, in a highly competitive context.
After two phases devoted to setting up the Diploma of Advanced Studies (DAS) and the Doctorate in Economics, the PTCI has become a large-scale programme with 18 partner faculties, 1000 students having earned the DAS and 100 doctors. The lessons learned from these two phases convinced the CIEREA and its partners of the necessity to launch the New Programme of the Inter-university Postgraduate Cycle (NPTCI).
Project beneficiaries
- students holding a DAS /Master's degree have a unique opportunity to embark on writing and defending their thesis in the prescribed five years period.
- CIEREA network research centres and host universities which do not just receive infrastructure financing, partly for IT hardware, software and documentation, but also a substantial critical mass of high-level economists to enable them to increase their teaching staff.
- The African states involved will benefit from an increase in proven expertise in economics.
The two key added value points of the project are:
- The provision of 25 doctorate economists trained in Africa, and
- The contribution of the action to the reduction of the brain drain from Africa
The activities required to carry out the project are:
- The selection of candidates via an open call for applications at all 18 campuses of the CIEREA network. Drawing up the list of grant recipients by the Academic Council of the NPTCI;
- Registration of grant recipients in faculties and their assignment to an affiliated research centre.
- The definition of the working environment in the research centres via provision of IT equipment and acquisition of documentation.
- Creation of synergies between partner institutions via the secondment of students between institutions;
- Organisation of thesis examinations
Sustainability of the action
The impact of the PTCO and its new version has already been demonstrated beyond doubt. In addition, the NPTCI enjoys several advantages which guarantee the success of this project: networking of 18 universities; a scientific body to select candidates according to objective criteria: continuous auditing of the quality of thesis production; sound management of the funds made available.
When completed, the project will have increased the capacities of the institutions in terms of IT hardware and documentation in general, but most of all the synergies between the universities and the research centres in the South, as well as between these institutions and research laboratories in the North will engender enormous benefits. Therefore, the university institutions and research centres in the CIEREA area will be able to take on the continuation of the project and will continue to produce - within a reasonable timescale - the number of doctors required by higher education in their country.
Chef de file
La Conference des Institutions d’Enseignement et de Recherche Economiques
et de Gestion en Afrique (CIEREA),
Burkina Faso
Partenaires
Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Sénégal
Centre Ivorien de Recherches Economiques et Sociales, Côte d’Ivoire
Université de Yaounde II, Cameroun
Université de Ouagadougou,Burkina Faso
Université Omar Bongo, Gabon
