Excellence in doctoral education: 2009-2019
The African Doctoral Academy (ADA), based at Stellenbosch University and located within the Africa Centre for Scholarship, has been providing doctoral scholarship across Africa since 2009. It is a direct response to the need for the accelerated production of quality doctoral graduates within Africa. The ADA's bi-annual, two-week-long Doctoral Schools take place every year in summer (January) and winter (June-July); and aim to offer high-impact research and methodology training for prospective and current doctoral candidates, their supervisors and researchers from a variety of fields.
Since the ADA's inception at Stellenbosch University ten years ago, the principal mechanism for doctoral support has been its bi-annual ADA Doctoral Schools in research methodology and academic development. At these events, leading scholars from international universities and from Stellenbosch University present week-long courses to doctoral students on topics, such as research designs and methods, postgraduate supervision, teaching and learning in Higher Education, academic writing and publishing, research ethics, research applications using digital technology and generic research skills such as proposal writing and project management. Courses are aimed at those who are about to embark on their doctoral studies, those who are in the process of completing their doctorates, and young academics who are tasked with supervising new intakes of doctoral students, managing research projects and producing articles for publication at their universities of origin from across the continent.
