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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