EAST-SPARK: Empowering Academic Supervision Training in Eastern Africa: Sparking Potential, Advancing Research, and Knowledge
Background
The key question of the EAST-SPARK project is how academics in the target region can be empowered to contribute to improving the quality of supervision at individual universities. Raising awareness is a starting point, but it should be coupled with concrete offers for those who want to improve their skills and knowledge. We know from the literature and from our own experience that training to professionalize supervision can have an impact.
Our goal
High-quality doctoral education requires state-of-the-art supervision. We want to contribute to overcoming the limiting factors of supervisory capacity. We want to foster a collaborative community of practice among academics in the region to professionalize PhD supervision, with a focus on cultural sensitivity and inclusivity. Our core mission is to facilitate sustainable capacity building initiatives that empower academics to supervise the next generation of researchers, aligning with global standards and contributing to the advancement of education and research in the region.
Our approach
Professors, lecturers and experts from Austria, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania and Zimbabwe have come together to form the EAST-SPARK consortium in order to create a training programme based on their own experiences as supervisors and participants in supervisor training courses and the literature, and to test it in a train-the-trainer workshop, which will enable the project participants to conduct their own training courses for their colleagues in East Africa, tailored to local conditions. In addition to the development of a training programme, this also includes the creation of tasks to promote interactive self-exchange as well as training materials etc. for the on-site training of supervisors. We are supported by an international advisory team and can build on the experience of the CREST programme and international best practices.
Partner Organisations
