Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - When and Why did MAKERERE and UDSM started offering PhDs by Coursework?

Friends,

Are we not comparing oranges with apples? The British tradition has largely been that of thesis research only for doctoral studies. This is because the British undergraduate system has some qualitative difference with the U.S. system. An American high school diploma is slightly lower than the British A'Level. Some of the British old public schools (as private boarding schools are quixotically known) would pass for colleges in the American system. Eton has an endowment of about $700 million. They encourage their A'Level students to do research and even publish papers in academic journals before they even go to undergraduate university studies. Schools such as Eton, St. Paul's, Harrow, Winchester, Radley and Tonbridge have formidable academic standing that is the envy of the entire world. When I was teaching at the American University in London an old Etonian boy got so bored to tears because the first year curriculum was a rude throw-back by two years as far as he was concerned!

Now, consider when these kids move on to Oxford and Cambridge where competition for undergraduate places is horrendous. Having solid 5 "As" is no guarantee of admission. You must pass an interview which does not test rote learning but how you can think on your fit in response to such questions as:

"Is this a question?"

"How many steps did you climb to this room?"

"What does it feel like to be a bird?"

"Time"

"Space"

"Do dogs have a sense of humour?"

etc etc.

When these kids graduate with something more than what they call a "Desmond" then they feel confident to move on to academic research. By the way, a "Desmond" by Oxbridge undergraduate lingo refers to a gentleman/gentlewoman 2nd lower class degree. When Stephen Hawking was on the borderline between a First and a 2:1 he had to face a panel:

"Hawking what are your career plans?"

"If I got a First I would pursue a career in science, anything lower, I would go into industry and make a fortune".

His tutor confided to the panel that this boy's intellect is at par with Einstein's, just that he would not bother to apply him to that extent.

So, they gave him a First so as not to lose him to industry. The rest is history!

Up until the fifties, Oxbridge graduates who had a First became researchers. The crown belonged to the Prize Fellowship at All Souls which is agreeably the toughest system of examinations in the Western world. The only African known to have passed the Prize Fellowship by examination was the Ghanaian philosopher William E. Abraham, who, as an undergraduate used to publish academic papers in Mind. Majority of the Oxbridge dons never had a PhD, which was largely a Germanic invention following the academic reforms made by Alexander von Humboldt. The idea of a research university in that sense was of German origin. You had doctorate and then you had to do another doctorate known as "habilitation". Hence such pompous German titles as "Herr Prof. Dr. Dr. Habil XXX". The Americans simply copied a bit of that into their doctoral coursework system.  Until recently, the French system  had something similar to the German model, in the sense that you had a simple Doctorat de Troisieme Cycle, equivalent to your normal PhD. To become an academic you also had to have another doctorate, Doctorat d'Etat. It's considered the height of high academic achievement. It entitles to speak as if you are God!

So, the American coursework system is neither here no there. The British system is however changing. At Oxbridge these days they do introduce some basic coursework, especially if students need to be acquainted with new methodologies in research, econometrics etc. But a lot of the professors only have first degrees. And some of them are Nobel laureates. Achebe and Soyinka and JP Clark -- of that generation -- were confident enough that they could be professors without having even a Master's degree. They were world renowned figures in their thirties, to prove the point.

Interestingly, it has been shown that the British thesis-only dissertation has produced more innovative discoveries than the coursework oriented American doctorate. Lest we forget, the greatest discoveries of the last 10o years have been made largely in Britain and Europe: quantum physics, breakthroughs in astronomy, the computer, the Internet, antibiotics, decoding of the human DNA -- these are proud British/European discoveries. What the Americans are great at is in turning these discoveries into "marketable goods".

Let science and the market flourish together -- no wahala!

On Sun, Sep 6, 2015 at 1:27 AM, Segun Ogungbemi <seguno2013@gmail.com> wrote:

In my view, a Ph.D program should be by course-work and research. It is very rigorous but it worths it if one is able to scale through. 

Prof. Segun Ogungbemi

On Sep 6, 2015, at 7:19 AM, "'Chambi Chachage' via USA Africa Dialogue Series" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:

It is a question that has been bothered me since I overhead a professor at UDSM's IDS complaining about the shift into PhDs by coursework instead of research. Now I have realized I do not have an answer after the ongoing debate with Sabatho Nyamsenda who (seems) to be defending it vigorously and arguing that even UDSM's PSPA does so.

If my memory is correct, Professor Chachage, was against it - as well as the introduction of the semester system at UDSM, which (again if my memory is correct) he viewed as a shift to 'Americanization' but I cannot (yet) track any of his specific writings on the subject. For those who have been (up) there perhaps you can refresh my/our memories.

In relation to all the above, there something else I recently overhead at UDSM, that is, the introduction of the ('Harvard Business School') 'Case Methodology' even in 'Social Sciences' and 'Humanities'. What is the 'rationale' of doing so? Where is the inspiration coming from - and why (now)? Below are some observations on 'courses' and 'programmes':

"As a result of this process the University of Dar es Salaam has reached a point where the production of 'marketable goods' – works, courses and graduates – is given priority over academic excellence, and where academic excellence is defined, in the narrow terms of policy makers, as marketability of courses and 'outputs'. With these corporate strategic goals in place until at least 2013 it would seem that the University of Dar es Salaam is behaving like Rip Van Winkle. For example the University of Cape Town, which introduced similar institutional transformations in the mid-1990s, abandoned them in 2001 after recognising the dangers they posed as far as knowledge production and dissemination are concerned" - Prof. Chachage on The University as a Site of Knowledge:The Role of Basic Research

"This takes me to the second issue; that Makerere is not a research university because it conducts research but does not produce researchers. To this problem, Mamdani's solution at least for the CHUSS, is an interdisciplinary PhD program – based at MISR. Ten students and a teaching team of seven; a teacher-student ratio of almost one-to-one – quite remarkable! But is it true that Makerere does not produce researchers? Or it is that Makerere's Masters and PhD graduates are incapable of doing the kind of research expected of a research university? I think that neither is the case" - Moses Khisa's 'Response to Mamdani' 

"Though PhD programs were introduced in CHUSS in the era of neoliberal reform, they constitute only a half measure.  On the positive side, they were backed by donors who came to realise that "staff training" overseas was not working because few of its beneficiaries were returning.  On the negative side, CHUSS is to my knowledge the only college at Makerere which does not have a coursework-based PhD program; at the same time, the coursework-based Masters programs are by and large professionally, and not academically, oriented" - Prof. Mamdani on 'Critiquing Makerere Research without Fear'

"Second, I also noted that to say that Makerere is not a research university because it has never produced researchers is a total misrepresentation. Makerere's different departments in fact have PhD programs. Mamdani grudgingly concedes to this point in his response article. But because he's wary of eating his words, Mamdani hastens to note that the College of Humanities and Social Science at Makerere is the only one without a course-work PhD program. Needless to say, this is hardly peculiar to Makerere as it is born of the British education system.  The course-work PhD is a uniquely North American style of doctoral training. If we simplistically employed the yardstick of course-work PhD programs, then universities in South Africa, India, Europe, etc., would hardly pass the test of being research universities" - Moses Khisa on 'What is Makerere's Problem?

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Kwa Nia Njema - In Good Faith

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