Towards developing a collaborative PhD program across ARUA member universities: experiences from Universitie Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegal

Abstract

This report highlights the status of PhD education in Senegal, using the University Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) as a case study. The report provides an overview of Senegal's socio-economic status, which has a bearing on how universities tend to organize PhD programmes, and which may influence the direction and/or design of collaborative programmes as envisaged by ARUA. The report details the national and institutional policy and operational frameworks for PhD programmes in Senegal and explores the nature of student access and progression policies across the programmes, to finally consider opportunities for designing collaborative arrangements and challenges that need to be addressed. The report is divided into five sections. The foreword is the first section. The proceeding section provides an overview of Ethiopia's socio-economic and political dynamics while section three provides a brief description of the Ethiopian higher education landscape. Section four delves into the case study university and the two selected programmes and presents findings from the collected data from the two case study programmes. Section five is a bestpractice case study programme while the ultimate, section six provides some recommendations and conclusion.