Doctoral students urge universities to integrate PADA modules into PhD curricula   

Academics and researchers across Africa have made a renewed appeal to governments and universities to integrate the skills-based Pan-African Doctoral Academy (PADA) programme into PhD curricula.  

PADA is a programme that helps Africa academics to develops skills for careers as researchers, teachers, and doctoral students.  

The academics, from various African countries, cite its transformative impact on accelerating research output and fostering continental scholarship.   

They made the call during the closing ceremony of the February 2025 PADA Doctoral School of the University of Ghana.  

PADA an initiative pioneered by Emerita Professor Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu with support from the University of Ghana, which has trained more than 5,000 doctoral candidates and early-career scholars from Ghana, Liberia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Kenya since 2015.    

Participants at the event, including Dr Soni Rose Kesele, a Liberian researcher, testified that PADA’s modules on grant writing, artificial intelligence (AI)-driven research tools, and academic career planning enabled them to secure grants, publish in peer-reviewed journals, and streamline lecture preparations.  

She emphasised the dramatic reduction in time required for tasks like lecture preparation and presentation development, advocating for wider access to these skills.  

 “Before PADA, I manually crafted lecture notes for weeks. Now, AI tools taught here help me prepare lessons and presentations in 10 minutes,” she said.   

She urged the university to sponsor staff for future trainings.  

Bishop Fred  Korankye-Mensah, a psychologist and Doctoral Student, revealed that AI module reduced his weekly research workload from seven days to two hours.  

He said the module should be a mandatory for every PhD student to shorten their study years and enhance productivity.   

AI training at PADA significantly streamlined his research and content creation processes, drastically cutting down the time required for his weekly academic television recordings.  

 Bishop Korankye-Mensah stressed the importance of embracing modern tools like AI in academia to improve efficiency and shorten the duration of PhD programmes.   

Dr Collins Badu Agyemang, Director, University of Ghana Pan African Doctoral Academy, explained that the academy was established to address the shortage of highly skilled researchers in Africa, particularly in Ghana.  

Since its inception in 2015, PADA had successfully empowered doctoral students and early career faculty from various African countries, leading to increased research output, grant acquisitions and evidenced-based policies and interventions that support national development, he said.  

However, he acknowledged the challenge of integrating PADA’s modules into the university curriculum due to funding constraints and fee structures set by Parliament.  

The Pan-African Doctoral Schools programme started from February 24 and will end on March 7, 2025. It was held at the Centre for Biodiversity Conservation Research at the University of Ghana.   

The programme is structured into two sessions – Doctoral School One started from February 24 – 28, while School Two starts from March 3 – 7, with each featuring specialised academic modules tailored for PhD students and early career scholars.   

Source: GNA  

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