BUJUMBURA May 30th (ABP) – Burundi is among the eight African countries that will benefit from the support of the Africa Internationalization and Digitalization of Graduate Training and Research for the Attainment of African Regional and Global Development Goals (DigiGrad) project, in the postgraduate level training. This was revealed on Monday, May 29, 2023 by the director of the Graduate School of the University of Burundi, Professor Juma Shabani.
That European Union-funded project, which aims to improve the quality and relevance of training for graduate students and young researchers in Africa, has the potential to help alleviate the shortage of academic staff and researchers in universities.
The three-year project also has the potential to alleviate the problem of aging faculty by injecting young, well-exposed, tech-savvy researchers into universities. It will improve the training of a new generation of graduate students, thereby helping the continent to achieve its regional and global development goals by harnessing the opportunities offered by the digitalization and internationalization of education.
The initiative for the project is a partnership between the African Network for the Internationalization of Education (ANIE) based in Kenya and the European Association for Higher Education and Research (Obreal Global), according to Dr Shabani. It is funded under the Erasmus + program of the European Union (EU), to the tune of 625,000 €, approximately 676,000 USD.
The project further aims to refine, contextualize and articulate the strategies of higher education institutions regarding digitization and internationalization, more particularly with regard to the training of graduates. It will also build the capacity of African university staff to better manage internationalization, particularly with regard to graduate studies. Staff will be trained in the use of digital tools to toughen graduate training and for internationalization.
Project beneficiaries and target groups at partner universities include early career researchers, internationalization and digital managers and postgraduate student supervisors. Towards the end of the project, Professor Shabani said, a network of early career researchers will be established and managed under the coordination of the University of Burundi Graduate School. It will have a sustainability plan and a website.