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Atlanta Black Star: African Students Abroad Returning Home For Fast Career Growth

February 2013

...Another program trying to help promising science and engineering students is the Regional Initiative in Science and Education (Rise). The program is trying to boost higher education in engineering and science across the continent, using international networks that connect universities, students, civil society and industry.

“The rationale behind the program,” said Arlen Hastings, executive director of the Science Initiative Group, which launched Rise, “was that there are many pockets of excellence around Africa, but there aren’t that many African universities, outside of South Africa, that have the capacity to provide comprehensive Ph.D. programs in science and engineering. However, if you take the elements, pieces from each of a bunch, you can put together a pretty strong education.”

Full article here.

AllAfrica: Africa - A New Model to Strengthen Higher Education

January 2013

For decades after sub-Saharan Africa’s emergence from the colonial era, its universities were weakened by civil strife and political turmoil.

Faculties of science and engineering declined as older professors retired faster than they were replaced; young graduates lacked financial support to complete their PhDs; professors lacked the resources to do research; and students and faculty alike found themselves professionally and geographically isolated from their peers.

Over the past decade, the urgency of this situation has become clear to institutions in Africa, and to some foundations and other donor organizations. I have had the privilege of chairing a small organization, the Science Initiative Group (SIG), that seeks to address these challenges. The objective of SIG, which consists of a board of international scientific experts and a small administrative office at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, is to help strengthen scientific capacity in developing countries. In partnership with Carnegie Corporation of New York, it supports a competitive program called the Regional Initiative in Science and Education (RISE) which allows post-graduate students and academic staff to work collaboratively and to advance in their professional careers.

RISE was designed during a series of discussions with African academic and scientific leaders. The more we learned about the damaging effects of academic isolation, the more strongly we saw the need for collaboration and partnerships. Therefore a defining feature of RISE is that it does not support individual people or institutions, but rather networks of academic institutions, each of which is required to have at least three member “nodes” in different countries. Five RISE networks were selected during a competition held in 2008 and judged by independent scientists. Although the scale of RISE is still small (we have supported about 140 students in the last five years), the program has become a credible model we hope to expand and strengthen in the coming years.

Full article here.

AllAfrica: Tapping Africa's Scientific Potential

January 2013

When John Mwero looks at charred sugar cane ash he sees sturdy bridges, soaring skyscrapers and stable roads. He's convinced that bagasse ash - the residue that's left after processors suck out the sugar and burn the cane, has the potential to make cement stronger and cheaper.

To test his hunch, Mwero is conducting research towards his PhD degree - and confronting multiple challenges. After two degrees at the University of Nairobi and several stints with area consultants and contractors, Mwero knew civil engineering was his niche.

But funds for doctoral students are limited, advisors are in short supply and critical research equipment may be unavailable or broken.

Many students take seven to 10 years to earn their degrees, which is a long time by the standards of African universities.

"If you need to do a test and there is no money," he says, " you have to go and work and get the money. You eat some of it and do other things with some and save a bit for research, so it becomes an uphill task."

Luckily for him, Mwero's work caught the attention of the Regional Initiative in Science and Education (RISE), which supports promising science and engineering students pursuing advanced degrees in sub-Saharan Africa. Through gifted scholars like Mwero, the program hopes to boost higher education in engineering and science across the continent - mainly through a series of international networks that connect universities, students, civil society and industry.

Full article here.