The official opening of the 2009 African
Economic Research Consortium’s (AERC) Joint
Facility for Electives (JFE) was auspicious. Held
on Monday, 6 July 2009 at the Kenya Commercial Bank
(KCB) Leadership Centre, Nairobi, the attendance told
it all. Stakeholders, students, lecturers, AERC and
KCB members of staff were all there to grace the occasion
and share pieces of advice with the students.
Officially opened by Prof. Isaac Mbeche,
on behalf of the Vice Chancellor of the University
of Nairobi, Prof. George Magoha, the event was immensely
successful. Prof. Mbeche who is the Principal, College
of Humanities and Social Sciences noting that he is
very proud of AERC, said that organizing an event
such as the JFE is a clear indication that Africa
can sometimes do great things. AERC has filled a niche
and is making a significant effort to push the African
agenda he added, noting that the JFE is very positively
rated among training centres in Africa and beyond.
“The depth of coverage and quality of the learning
facility makes it a leading human capacity building
outfit”. He challenged students to set high
goals and exploit their full potential as they keep
alive the spirit of competition in academic pursuit.
Prof. William Lyakurwa, the AERC executive
director welcomed the students to the AERC network,
notifying them once they join in, they become permanent
members. He told them that since they are researchers
on the learning curve there was a lot to study. Students
were also advised to take advantage of the opportunity
and make the best use of their time. “Exercise
caution in whatever you do to minimize any danger
that could occur”, he told them while re-iterating
that the assembly of graduate economics students from
different countries in the continent was a creditable
way of building a true African union.
The AERC director of training, Dr. Marios
Obwona, emphasized that the most important guests
at this event were the students, without whom nobody
would be participating in the function. He said that
this year, the JFE brings together 118 Masters students
from 19 African nationalities and 21 PhD students
drawn from eight African nationalities. It also marks
the first time JFE has had more students from under-represented
countries such as Liberia, Mauritius, Rwanda, Sierra
Leone and Sudan.
The courses in both programmes will
be taught by a combined team of 34 visiting professors/lecturers
competitively recruited from within and outside Africa.
This makes the JFE one of the largest concentrations
of graduate training in economics in a single location.
After successful completion of JFE course work and
examinations in October (for Masters) and November
(for PhD), the students will return to their home
universities for their research theses preparations
and comprehensive examinations, respectively. Stressing
that the JFE is a very tight and rigorous programme,
Dr. Obwona advised students to start work on their
theses research proposals while still at the facility.
The JFE is an annual 14–16-week
residential training programme that serves both Collaborative
Masters Programme (CMAP) and Collaborative PhD Programme
(CPP) by bringing instructors and students from AERC
network universities to one facility to undertake
a commonly agreed set of elective courses. Designed
to address capacity problems in participating universities,
the JFE is a key component of AERC’s collaborative
training initiative.
This intensive programme presents a
selection of high quality courses that are generally
beyond the capacity of existing demand of the participating
universities. A major advantage of the programme is
that it makes it possible to recruit outstanding scholars
from the region and overseas to teach the courses.
The idea is to ensure that the programmes’ high
standards are maintained, as well as to provide a
mutually enriching environment. The common facility
allows relationships to be built during the session
that contribute to a real “Pan-African union”
of future policy makers, researchers and university
lecturers.
