Research opportunities
The University of New England (UNE) has a world-renown reputation as a leader in the provision of education to students in distant, rural and remote areas. Its five star rating, founded on 77 years of a culture of excellence in teaching, learning and research, ensures that it is able to deliver education of international calibre for its students. This expertise makes UNE the ideal provider of education to African countries whose relatively under-developed infrastructure means that most schools in Africa are situated in rural and remote locales.
Building on this tradition, UNE researchers are proactively pursuing possibilities to conduct collaborative research in Africa and to create opportunities for African students to pursue postgraduate studies through UNE from within their own countries with the option of undertaking some of their research and learning at UNE.
As part of this agenda, research projects are being conducted in Uganda and Zambia (Assoc. Prof. Tom Maxwell and Dr. Charles Kivunja) and in Ethiopia (Prof. John Gibson), on projects which will build intellectual capital in these countries to facilitate their economic development. The work in Uganda and Zambia, for instance, is funded by the British Council (DelPHE). However, there are many more donors that are keen to fund research in Africa, if such research is well planned and shows promise to contribute to the achievement of the millennium development goals of enhancing education for all primary school children, eradicating HIV/AIDs and other diseases as well a poverty.
Such donors include:
• AusAID – Research and Fellowships Programs
www.ausaid.gov.au
• National Research Foundation – International Research Grants
www.nrf.ac.za/services/isl/index.stm
• Wellcome Trust – Research Capacity Strengthening in Africa
www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Biomedical-science/Grants/Other
• British Council – DelPHE Scheme
www.britishcouncil.org/delphe.htm
• African Economic Research Consortium – Collaborative Research Programme
www.aercafrica.org/programmes/research collab.asp
• ACIAR – Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research
www.aercafrica.org/programmes/index.asp
These websites include information about how to submit research grants applications on areas of high priority to Africa and we encourage researchers to consider applying for research grants and working collaboratively in research teams. Equally important to African students interested in pursuing doctoral research is to read the UNE rules for PhD programmes and then apply online.
The rules can be found at: www.une.edu.au/policies/pdf/phdrules.pdf
Online application can be made at: http://www.une.edu.au/education/resources/pdfs/Application_process.pdf