By Prof Jacob Mati
This year started off pregnant with hope and it has turned out well beyond our expectations. On the Academic Programmes front, we welcomed the first cohort of the Post Graduate Diploma in Management in the field of African Philanthropy and Resource Mobilisation, and are happy to report that we now have the first graduates in this programme. The successful delivery of this programme involved the contributions of multiple individuals and institutions that include lecturers, examiners, programme administrators, curriculum developers and reviewers. This programme is now fully accredited as Post Graduate Diploma in African Philanthropy and Resource Mobilisation. This process and outcome would not have been a success without the valuable partnership of the Inyathelo Institute for Advancement.
The year also saw two of our PhD students graduate as newly minted doctors – please join me in congratulating Dr Dennis Osiei and Dr Wycliffe Nduga Ouma. The PhD programme welcomed three new students who are progressing well in their doctoral studies. Several legacy PhD students also went through proposal defence panels successfully and are at the various stages of data collection and write-up. One of the ways that CAPSI provides support to PhD students is through PhD methodology seminars, as well as mobility grants to attend conferences.
Our Master of Management in African Philanthropy programme (coursework and research report) was fully accredited in 2021. This is in addition to the Master of Management in African Philanthropy by Research. The inaugural cohort of this class has successfully completed four of their compulsory modules and are on course in their research projects. The highlight of their progress was that nine of the 11 students successfully defended their proposals at the school postgraduate committee panel and are now embarking on their data collection. We expect these students to successfully complete the remaining elective courses, while also concentrating on their research report writing. The success of this programme so far has relied heavily on the support of our partners, who helped in curriculum development and review, examination as well as reviewing and serving in the research proposal panels. Going forward, the remaining task is to appoint examiners for the research reports for these students to ensure a smooth transition to the examination stage, when they submit their reports.
With a view to ensuring that prospective students get relevant information about our programmes, we held multiple information events throughout the year, both formal and informal. We took every opportunity in conferences and other convenings to promote our programmes within this community. These include a session in the final judging of the Aspire Higher Competition, an exhibition table at the ISTR 2022 Conference in Montreal, and a session at the Fundraising certification training in Cape Town. The year also saw three of the CAPSI staff achieve certification in fundraising by The Fundraising School, University of Indiana, USA. This certification enables these three members to teach a similar course locally.
We look forward to updating and strengthening our curriculum, ensuring curriculum alignment and reinforcing programme coherence through a tailor-made workshop with all teaching staff in early 2023.
