etd initiatives in africa by felix n. ubogu university of the witwatersrand, johannesburg. e-mail:...
TRANSCRIPT
ETD Initiatives in Africa
By
Felix N. Ubogu University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
E-mail: [email protected]
ETD Initiatives in Africa (1)• Egypt and South Africa have computerised bibliographic
databases of theses and dissertations (most records with abstracts)
• Selected institutions in other African countries participate in the DATAD (database of African theses and dissertations) programme
• DATAD is under the auspices of the Association of African Universities (AAU)
• DATAD was funded by the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa, an initiative of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation.
New DATAD members
Pioneer DATAD members
UNESCO Sponsored ETD workshops
• South Africa (University of the Witwatersrand) in 2003
• Ethiopia (Addis Ababa University) in 2004• In both countries, decision was made to establish
national ETD projects• In South Africa, a National ETD Project is driven by
the Committee for Higher Education Librarians of South Africa (CHELSA) and sponsored by the National Research Foundation (NRF).
Consortia Initiatives• Some African countries participate in the Cyberdocs
programme• In Algeria the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific
Research has decreed that an electronic copy of every Master’s and PhD thesis defended in every academic institution must be deposited at CERIST Research Centre
• Many African countries now have academic library consortia
• One of their key goals is the establishment of institutional repositories and digitisation of materials
University of JohannesburgUniversity of Johannesburg
University of PretoriaUniversity of Pretoria
University of the WitwatersrandUniversity of the Witwatersrand
University of the Free StateUniversity of the Free State
Stellenbosch UniversityStellenbosch University
University of the Western CapeUniversity of the Western Cape
Rhodes UniversityRhodes University
University of South AfricaUniversity of South Africa
Durban University of TechnologyDurban University of Technology
Conclusion
• General awareness among many universities in Africa of the need to create institutional repositories, especially digital repositories of theses and dissertations (TDs)
• Some universities are now requesting students to submit digital copies of their TDs
• Challenges include lack of infrastructure and skills