BUJUMBURA July 4th (ABP) – The management of the graduate school of the University of Burundi (UB) is delighted with the results already achieved during the five years of existence of that institution.
The director of that school Professor Juma Shabani announced it on Thursday June 29, 2023, during an interview he gave to a check by ABP.
According to Mr. Shabani, the major achievements of the school are, among other things, 33 doctoral theses already produced, more than 221 articles published by doctoral students, including 102 which were produced by doctoral students from the 3rd cohort.
Currently, he said, more than 60 doctoral students also meet the conditions for admission to the private defense before the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024.
According to Professor Shabani, if this trend continues, in 2028, the graduate school will have trained more doctors for Burundi than those trained during the period from 1962 to 2018.
He also noted the existence of more than 70 co-promoters from the University of Burundi and more than 250 co-promoters from outside Burundi. That doctoral training facility has also special programs.
The management of the doctoral school notes the mobility project for graduate students and teachers between the University of Burundi and the University of Tubingen in Germany, funded by the European Union, the project on the internationalization and digitization of doctoral training and research, funded by the European Union and implemented by a consortium of 8 African universities and 4 European universities, the doctoral training in nutrition funded by the African Development Bank and the mobility program at the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Brussels.
The director of the graduate school at UB also indicated that other training programs that have been initiated by the doctoral school of the University of Burundi relate to training for the Diploma of Specialized Studies in mental health at Dakar, Cotonou and Dar es Salaam, funded by Swiss cooperation in Burundi. He also spoke about the project to create a diploma of specialized studies in legal medicine which is financed by the Swiss cooperation in Burundi and the City, and the Canton of Geneva and implemented in collaboration with the universities of Geneva and Lausanne and the University of Burundi’s Incubation and Acceleration Center, with funding from DISK (German Savings Bank Foundation for International Cooperation), and ENABEL (Belgian Development Agency).
The graduate school of the University of Burundi has the mission to contribute to the academic succession of teachers and researchers of the University of Burundi. It also wants to contribute to the training of human resources at doctoral level for other higher education institutions in Burundi and elsewhere, and to the training of competent human resources in the priority areas of the Sustainable Development Goals in Burundi and elsewhere.
Its operating model is based on five pillars, namely co-promotion or joint supervision of theses, compulsory courses on the use of ICT in doctoral research, doctoral studies, mobility and the use of online teaching platforms and videoconferencing to allow doctoral students to access virtual resources.
Nevertheless, Mr. Shabani pointed out, the graduate school of the University of Burundi is facing challenges related to the rapid increase in the number of doctoral students, the diversification of training courses and the insufficient appropriation of the operating model by some partners.
As for the opportunities, Professor Shabani notes the possibilities of forging new partnerships. New partners of the University of Burundi doctoral school include Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), iThemba Labs (South Africa), Washington State University, and the Institute for African Culture and International Understanding, a UNESCO category 2 institute located at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, Nigeria, he said.