The EDE project team gathered in Nairobi, Kenya this October for an intensive week-long workshop, marking a significant milestone in enhancing doctoral education across Kenya and South Africa. Hosted by the University of Nairobi, this meeting brought together sharp minds and bold ideas from project members from universities in Kenya, Slovenia, South Africa and the Netherlands, along with the ministries and quality assurance bodies from Kenya and South Africa.
Building on momentum from our Stellenbosch workshop earlier this year, the Nairobi sessions crackled with energy as participants dove into the complexities of doctoral education across Africa and Europe. The discussions were refreshingly honest, revealing how national and institutional policies often fail to capture the messy, lived realities of doctoral journeys.
At the workshop’s core was Work Package 2 – an ambitious ‘discourse analysis’ examining how thoughts and ideas in national and institutional policies shape the realities of doctoral education in Kenya and South Africa. The conversations surfaced critical insights: identifying not just what’s working, but also the gaps and contradictions between policy rhetoric and practice. The discourse analysis has laid a strong foundation for meaningful and sustainable transformation, guiding the next steps of the project.
Looking ahead, the team is now designing frameworks for analysing institutional practices in doctoral education across both countries through Work Package 3. This next phase is firmly grounded in themes identified by WP 2 such as – equity & diversity, governance & accountability, quality & structure, and the increasing internationalisation of doctoral education. The goal? Grounding future interventions in the authentic experiences and wisdom that emerge from these rich cross-continental dialogues.
