Overview
In June 2019 the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation approved a grant of $800,000 as part of its initial grant of $4m to University of Ghana to train PhD students. The project will run for 4 years (2019-2023) with the objective of training doctoral students to ultimately augment the faculty strength in the humanities in the following disciplines:
Languages (including English, Linguistics, French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Kiswahili and Russian);
Arts (including Philosophy and Classics, Archaeology and Heritage Studies, the Study of Religions and History);
Performing Arts (including Dance, Music and Theatre Arts);
African Studies
In designing the project, the team had in view the need to address challenges of the humanities at the University of Ghana including the relatively low doctoral enrolment, retention and graduation rates. This situation, as pertains in the University, is largely due to financial challenges faced by potential candidates and the dearth of qualified staff in the departments to train postgraduate students. The target of this project is to support the 2-year Masters students who completed their programme in the initial ENCAPEH-UG project (G-31700720) and some Assistant Lecturers in the humanities without PhD to acquire their doctoral degrees. To achieve this, the strategy has been to provide financial support for research costs and stipend. In addition, the project also organizes knowledge and skills enhancement training workshops and conferences and provide support for visits to Mellon partner institutions. Three sets of students were awarded the scholarship: the ENCAPEH students who completed their MPhil studies a year before, Assistant Lecturers who had no PhD and one student who is neither Assistant Lecturer nor ENCAPEH student but who stood out in the selection processes.
