Brain drain to blame for lack of PhD holders in our universities – Researcher

Researcher at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Prof Richard Odame Philips, has associated the inadequacy of lecturers, preferably PhD holders, in Ghanaian universities and industries to brain-drain of professionals on the African continent.

While bemoaning the inadequacy of researchers on the continent, he noted that less than 1% of scientific articles published worldwide include at least one author based in an African institution.

Irrespective of the inadequacy, he further disclosed that Africa still loses some 20,000 professionals to high-income countries every year thereby putting Africa in need of a million new PhDs to catch up with the rest of the world.

While delivering his keynote address at the 2nd Annual Postgraduate Conference at KNUST on the theme “Harnessing Postgraduate Research to Achieve Sustainable Development Goals”, researcher at the KNUST School of Medicine and the scientific director of the Kumasi Center for Collaborative Research (KCCR), Prof. Richard Odame Philips is pessimistic about Africa achieving the SDG goals by 2030.

“Data collected by the British Counsel and DAAD in a study done in Ghana shows comparably low research productivity with inadequate staff with PhDs. A consistent lack of funding and support for PhDs were evident in that report. Health and Scientific research contribute to improvements in health, social welfare and poverty reduction but considering the poor quality and quantity of research collaborations in Ghana and Africa it is clear that we may not be able to achieve our SDG goals by 2030”, he said.

Prof. Odame outlined some challenges faced in scientific research and innovation and suggested ways to improve the situation.

“Our graduate education has a real major role to play in ensuring that we are able to achieve the SDG goals this is because it is at this level that new skills are gained for both inside and outside of academia, we deal with ethical dilemmas, assess the role of new technologies and how to communicate to all societies. So, investing in doctoral education is investing in a sustainable future that is why we need to have a focus on our doctoral and graduate programs.

“But graduate education is crippled in Africa by in adequate qualified supervisors and infrastructure, poor program policies, student progress monitoring, lengthy final exams processes, high publication fees, no allocations for research activities, language barriers among a host of others. We can overcome these challenges if government allocate funds for and the private sector contribute their quota to research activities. There is the need for Ghanaian and African researchers to undertake inter-sectorial, interdisciplinary and international research activities, balancing local and international research collaboration, waiving of publication for African researchers, restructuring of PhD programs and career paths, and giving our youth the chance to access postgraduate education through sponsorship and mentorship programs,” he said

Speaking on behalf of the Vice Chancellor, the Pro-Vice chancellor of KNUST, Prof Ellis Owusu-Darbo entreated government and stakeholders in academia to prioritize health research for economic transformation.

“We are only 6years away from 2030. One way we can achieve these and transform the world is through sustainability and through innovation and impactful research we will be able to identify problems and come up with practical solutions to solve them. I will charge the government to set aside an endowment fund to support research and innovation and we should be willing to implement recommendations from our researchers to transform our economies. Access to quality education, health, water and reducing poverty can all be achieved through quality innovative research and policy implementation,” he said.

As part of the 2nd Annual Postgraduate Conference, the Provost of the College of Health Sciences at KNUST, Prof. Christian Agyare noted that the college has sorted about 165 abstracts from graduate students and the teams with the most captivating and impactful research topics shall be awarded cash prices, international flight tickets to attend conferences in Europe, technological equipment and other logistics to undertake their studies in their respective areas.

Issah Zakariah/Akoma FM/3news.com