Missing link in higher education

Prof Peter Wanyande’s engagement with PASGR goes back eight years—even before the pan-African policy research organisation was born. “I had the opportunity to discuss the initiative with the current Executive Director, Prof Tade Akin Aina, and Higher Education Programme (HEP) Director
Beatrice Muganda at the very initial stages of PASGR,” he says.

The don has attended PASGR training sessions and taken part in organising a scholars’ workshop at the University of Dar es Salaam late 2016, where he also gave a talk.

As the current coordinator of the PASGR programme at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, UoN, Wanyande says of the university’s becoming the 13-member of the MRPP programme:

“There is no doubt that the participating universities find this a relevant programme, whose graduates would be useful in their various places of work in the public and private sector. The multidisciplinary and multi-methods approach used by PASGR is very useful.”

PASGR has successfully carried out several executive courses linking industry to academic institutions. Collaboration by policymakers and researchers is a great achievement partly because it is one of the missing links in our higher education system. It is an initiative that should be encouraged as students stand to benefit a lot from these linkages.”

This post is from the 2016 PASGR annual report. Download a PDF copy to read other stories about our work.