Institute of Child Health, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
School of Oral Health Sciences, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
PLoS One. 2021 Jun 10;16(6):e0252863. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0252863. eCollection 2021.
The Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) aims to transform higher education in Africa. One of its main thrusts is supporting promising university faculty (fellows) to obtain high quality doctoral training. CARTA offers fellows robust support which includes funding of their attendance at Joint Advanced Seminars (JASes) throughout the doctoral training period. An evaluation is critical in improving program outcomes. In this study; we, CARTA fellows who attended the fourth JAS in 2018, appraised the CARTA program from our perspective, specifically focusing on the organization of the program and its influence on the fellows' individual and institutional development.
Exploratory Qualitative Study Design was used and data was obtained from three focus group discussions among the fellows in March 2018. The data were analyzed using thematic approach within the framework of good practice elements in doctoral training-Formal Research Training, Activities Driven by Doctoral Candidates, Career Development as well as Concepts and Structures.
In all, 21 fellows from six African countries participated and all had been in the CARTA program for at least three years. The fellowship has increased fellows research skills and expanded our research capacities. This tremendously improved the quality of our doctoral research and it was also evident in our research outputs, including the number of peer-reviewed publications. The CARTA experience inculcated a multidisciplinary approach to our research and enabled significant improvement in our organizational, teaching, and leadership skills. All these were achieved through the well-organized structures of CARTA and these have transformed us to change agents who are already taking on research and administrative responsibilities in our various home institutions. Unfortunately, during the long break between the second and the third JAS, there was a gap in communication between CARTA and her fellows, which resulted in some transient loss of focus by a few fellows.
The CARTA model which builds the research capacity of doctoral fellows through robust support, including intermittent strategic Joint Advanced Seminars has had effective and transformative impacts on our doctoral odyssey. However, there is a need to maintain the momentum through continuous communication between CARTA and the fellows all through this journey.
非洲高级研究培训联盟（CARTA）旨在改变非洲的高等教育。其主要重点之一是支持有前途的大学教师（研究员）获得高质量的博士培训。CARTA 为研究员提供强有力的支持，包括在整个博士培训期间资助他们参加联合高级研讨会（JASes）。评估对于改善项目成果至关重要。在这项研究中；我们是 2018 年参加第四次 JAS 的 CARTA 研究员，从我们的角度评估了 CARTA 计划，特别是关注该计划的组织及其对研究员个人和机构发展的影响。
采用探索性定性研究设计，于 2018 年 3 月从研究员的三次焦点小组讨论中获取数据。使用主题方法在博士培训的良好实践要素框架内（正式研究培训、由博士生驱动的活动、职业发展以及概念和结构）分析数据。
共有来自六个非洲国家的 21 名研究员参加了此次研究，他们都至少在 CARTA 计划中工作了三年。该奖学金提高了研究员的研究技能并扩大了我们的研究能力。这极大地提高了我们博士研究的质量，这也体现在我们的研究成果中，包括同行评审出版物的数量。CARTA 的经验使我们的研究采用了多学科方法，并显著提高了我们的组织、教学和领导技能。所有这些都是通过 CARTA 的精心组织结构实现的，这些结构使我们转变为变革推动者，他们已经在各自的母机构中承担研究和行政职责。不幸的是，在第二次和第三次 JAS 之间的长时间休息期间，CARTA 和她的研究员之间存在沟通上的差距，这导致一些研究员暂时失去了焦点。
CARTA 模式通过强有力的支持（包括间歇性的战略联合高级研讨会）来建立博士研究员的研究能力，对我们的博士之旅产生了有效和变革性的影响。然而，需要通过 CARTA 和研究员在整个旅程中的持续沟通来保持这种势头。
