Partners

The Partnership for Africa's Next Generation of Academics (PANGeA) is a collaborative network of leading African universities developing research capacity and confidence in bringing African expertise to Africa's challenges. The founding partners include the University of Botswana; the University Dar es Salaam (Tanzania); Makerere University (Uganda); the University of Malawi; the University of Nairobi (Kenya) and Stellenbosch University (South Africa). The University of Ghana and University of Yaoundé I (Cameroon) joined the consortium in 2014. PANGeA is enriched through developing an active footprint on which to draw intellectual diversity in terms of linguistic, cultural and national backgrounds.

Vision, strategy and values

Our vision is to promote Africa's next generation of academics, professionals and leaders through partnership and collaboration on the continent. Our mission is to build and sustain world-class doctoral programmes on and about the African continent, collaborating with African institutions, focusing on the arts, humanities and social sciences.

To achieve the overall objective, all of the necessary elements were joined together into a coherent programme strategy which rests on the belief that the interchange of human capital between the global North and South will become more equitable when African institutions are recognised - in Africa and abroad - as sustainable sites of research and higher learning. The Partnership for Africa's Next Generation of Academics (PANGeA) is thus a network of African universities working together to become the lead institutions in the execution of this strategy. Among others they develop research capacity on site, participate in exchange schemes, workshops and training seminars alternated between the various partner campuses, joint projects and supervision. In the long run they aim to establish joint doctoral degrees.

The PANGeA partnership is grounded in the principles of investment, reciprocity, equity and trust.

Link to the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences (Stellenbosch University)

Stellenbosch University's contribution to the PANGeA network was the establishment of the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences (as a pilot case) to strengthen and advance doctoral training and scholarship on the African continent.

The Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences has enrolled more than 200 full-time PhD scholars, from 18 sub-Saharan African countries, since it was launched in 2010. Of the 200 students already enrolled, 40% are junior academics and staff members that were nominated by the PANGeA partner institutions to pursue their doctoral degrees full-time at Stellenbosch University. To date, more than 57 candidates from within the PANGeA network have graduated from Stellenbosch University. All 57 PANGeA graduates have since resumed their academic posts at our partner universities which is a clear indication that the PANGeA initiative is a safeguard against the brain drain to the south of the continent.

For more information, visit http://www0.sun.ac.za/pangeaonline/