On 11-12 May, the DigiGrad Africa project – Internationalisation and Digitalisation of Graduate Training and Research for the Attainment of African Regional and Global Development Goals- will hold its kick-off meeting in Eldoret, Kenya.
At this event, hosted by ANIE (African Network for Internationalization of Educatio), the participants in this project, which aims to improve the quality and relevance of training for postgraduate students and young researchers in Africa, will discuss the different phases of the project and set up the essential teams to ensure that all the objectives of this European-funded initiative are achieved.
This project is based on the assumption that international collaborations /partnerships are one of the ways of enhancing research capacities /postgraduate training in Africa. Further, it assumes that that the new opportunities of digitalization can be strategically deployed to enhance internationalization and research/postgraduate training capacities in African universities.
The partnership unites eight universities from Ghana, Kenya, Burundi, and South Sudan, drawing on their different strengths and catering to their different capacity needs. They are members of ANIE, which coordinates the project with support from OBREAL Global and universities from The Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Belgium.
Concretely, the project will:
- Refine, contextualise and articulate HEI strategies for digitalization and internationalization, specifically as it relates to training graduates and young researchers.
- Build HEI staff capacity in African universities to manage internationalisation of graduate studies, including the capacity to facilitate greater intra-African student and researcher exchange
- Build HEI staff capacity in African Universities to utilise digital tools to strengthen graduate and postgraduate training and internationalise it
- Build the capacity of young African researchers to exploit digitalisation and develop and sustain a network of young African researchers