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The Wits-Edinburgh Sustainable African Futures -WESAF Doctoral Programme: DEADLINE IS TODAY, APPLY NOW

Apply for the The Wits-Edinburgh Sustainable African Futures -WESAF Doctoral Programme

AdminMay 11, 2023

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The Wits-Edinburgh Sustainable African Futures -WESAF Doctoral Programme

Host Organization

University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and the University of Edinburgh (UoE)

Application Deadline: 15 May 2023

Call for Applications for the WESAF Doctoral Programme are now open.

The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and the University of Edinburgh (UoE) inaugurated the Wits-Edinburgh Sustainable African Futures (WESAF) Doctoral Programme, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program – a global initiative that enables learning and leadership development for talented young people, primarily young Africans, who face the highest barriers to accessing higher education. The WESAF doctoral programme aims to build sustainable development-focussed, interdisciplinary research capacity in partner higher education institutions in Africa.

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Call for Applications

The call for applications to the WESAF Doctoral programme is open with some guidelines on how to apply. Applications close at 17:00 on Monday, 15 May 2023.

Successful applicants who will form the first WESAF Doctoral Programme cohort are scheduled to gather in person for a week of structured orientation as part of the official commencement of the programme in Johannesburg in September 2023. For further information please visit https://www.wits.ac.za/wesaf/about-the-programme

About the Wits-UoE Partnership

Wits and the UoE share a long-standing and productive partnership. Bound by common values, the universities are committed to developing knowledge collaboratively that will shape dignified, equitable and sustainable futures for people across the world.

About the WESAF Doctoral programme

The WESAF doctoral programme aims to provide research training to equip students (primarily academics already holding tenured positions) to complete interdisciplinary doctoral research on areas related to sustainability on the African continent. The blended programme is designed to enable students to complete primarily online masters followed by a primarily online doctorate.

The Masters by Research and PhD programmes will however combine in-person elements including sustainability schools (in person schools focussed on enhancing knowledge in the field of sustainability research) in South Africa and contact sessions in Edinburgh alongside workplace-based internships. Supervision will be jointly delivered online and jointly by academics from both UoE and Wits.

The WESAF Doctoral programme will recruit an initial cohort of 50 students from faculties from African higher education institutions to complete sustainability focused doctoral studies. Following an initial online Masters by Research, to front-load the development of critical research skills and delivered full time, at least 30 of these students will continue to complete PhDs either full-time or part-time. Through its cohort approach and emphasis on advanced research design and methods training, the WESAF Doctoral programme will produce a powerful cohort of African research specialists committed to addressing Africa’s sustainability challenges on its own terms.Impacts

The Universities of the Witwatersrand and Edinburgh share a long-standing and productive partnership. Bound by common values, the Institutions are committed to collaboratively producing the kinds of knowledge that will shape dignified, equitable and sustainable futures for people across the world. Under this overarching vision, WESAF aims to:

Equip universities to grapple with complex, continental challenges for sustainable development

Generate inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to sustainability in Africa
Incubate intersectoral, industry aligned African strategies for sustainability with global impact.
Strengthen regional research capacity networks through networking of partner institutions and partner universities.

Outcomes

Graduates will have qualified to drive advanced sustainability research in their countries of origin
Researchers from historically marginalized and underrepresented groups will be integrated into the African research community

Organizational, financial and human resource capacity of partner institutions will be strengthened.

Innovations

The WESAF Doctoral programme will be mainly delivered online (with some in-person sustainability school elements delivered at the University of Witwatersrand and meetings in Edinburgh) to ensure the best possible access to quality supervision for all applicants;

It will provide advanced front-loaded methodological training in a context where virtually all doctoral degrees are focused on producing research outputs only;
It will include an appropriately scoped workplace internship aimed at harmonizing the developmental agendas of the world of work, government, higher education, society and the environment.