Africa-led partnership: The African Economic Research Consortium and TCD

The African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) was established in 1988 with the principal objective of strengthening local capacity for economic policy research in Sub-Saharan Africa in response to the region's need for personnel with skills pertinent to the effective management of these economies.

The partnership between AERC and TCD supports two students to participate in the AERC’s Collaborative PhD Programme (CPP). Professor Frank Barry, School of Business, TCD, also teaches on the CPP programme, including on the CPP Joint Facility for Electives.

The two PhD students who have been awarded scholarships through this partnership are: Ms. Phyllis Mumia Machio enrolled at the University of Nairobi and Mr. Elineema Kennedy Kisanga enrolled at the University of Dar Es Salaam.

The CPP programme comprises of the following three main elements:

• Coursework Component:
  Each student takes courses in five fields, namely, three core fields (Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, and Quantitative Methods) and two elective fields, chosen from the current set of 11 approved fields.

• Comprehensive Examinations:
  Each student must pass comprehensive examinations in four fields, namely, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics and the chosen two elective fields. The examinations are taken at the end of the coursework component.

• The Doctoral Thesis Component:
  After the comprehensive examinations, each student prepares and defends a thesis at his/her university of registration. To ensure timely management of the thesis preparation process, as well as high-quality theses are produced, the AERC organizes two workshops (the PhD Proposal Workshop and the Post-Field-Work Workshop) at a central place for all students coinciding with Bi-annual research workshops organized by the AERC research department. The participants at each of the workshops include all the students in the relevant year of study, their supervisors, and resource persons drawn from Africa and elsewhere in the world. The research topics undertaken by the students will be focused on Irish Aid thematic priority areas.