Challenges of early career researchers in African countries
Early career researchers are those researchers or academics (having not more than 8 years post PhD experience) at very early stage which is the most active phase of research following the award of PhDs. These researchers can be on a tenure track position or not. The tenured track early career researchers can be in the […]
Early career researchers are those researchers or academics (having not more than 8 years post PhD experience) at very early stage which is the most active phase of research following the award of PhDs.
These researchers can be on a tenure track position or not. The tenured track early career researchers can be in the research institutes, universities, polytechnics or colleges.
In the university, the rank of early career researchers range from Assistant Lecturers to mostly Lecturer I or occasionally Senior Lecturers (in very rare circumstances).
Literally, the early career researchers are called ‘postdocs’ or postdoctoral fellows in developed countries.
They are inexperienced researchers who require a lot of guidance, support, mentorship and motivation to ascend through the most difficult and challenging job that requires ability to maintain a balance between teachings, research and administrative responsibilities after completing a PhD degree.
In a typical Nigerian situation, most Nigerian Universities do not pay much attention to providing the required mentorship and guidance to these young PhDs holders and as a result, these researchers easily get frustrated and lose interest in the job.
The funding agencies in Nigeria do not also give priority attention to the early career researchers. The consequences of the lack of giving the needed attention to these researchers are enormous.
There is possibility for them to leave the university job at their early stage for a lucrative job. Recently, I have seen several of my colleagues with PhDs running away from universities to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and even the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). These kinds of jobs are the last choice of PhD holders.
Every PhD holder will prefer to remain in the university environment provided the condition and atmosphere is conducive for him including good remuneration.
In the university, PhD holders have a lot of future prospects but unfortunately however, the system does not support them to grow and become authorities in their domain.
A Professor is supposed to have a well equipped state-of-the-art laboratory where his PhD students work under the guidance of a senior scholar-the postdoctoral fellow-with the professor (supervisor) serving as their overall mentor.
This scenario is completely absent in Nigeria. Thanks to Institution Based Research Funds (IBR) reactivated recently which allows Nigerian University researchers to avail a maximum of 2 million naira for research.
The National Research Fund (NRF) which allows one to attract a grant of up to 50 million naira was not designed to accommodate the early career researchers.
Perhaps, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and other funding agencies in Nigeria should consider with priority, the inclusion of early career researchers for funding.
Most Nigerian PhD holders in the university system in Nigeria were sponsored by TETFund or Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) and therefore, a provision should be there to support scholars to become fully established after completing their PhDs otherwise, the purpose of the training will not be achieved if the scholars ran away from the universities or colleges.
Researchers especially in sciences, engineering and medical sciences etc cannot publish a good paper in a reputable journal without grant or funding.
Remember those who cannot “publish perish” from the academic environment. In the academic system, the slogan is either you “publish or perish”.
Similarly, due to lack of support to young academics, the universities or research institutes in Nigeria will in near future lack renowned experts who are supposed to replace the retiring Professors.
The academic environment must be tailored towards preparing a ground for breeding experts in several areas of knowledge. This is only possible when early career researchers are given the required support to become established.
The funding agencies such as TETFund and PTDF should consider advertising and supporting PhDs (early career researchers) who were unable to get tenure track positions with opportunity to take a postdoctoral fellowship opportunity in Nigeria.
This is very common in most developed world. I have seen such kind of opportunities advertised in South Africa. African Union has also started last year under the auspices of “African Postdoctoral Training Initiative” (APT). Why not Nigeria which prides itself as the “Giant of Africa?”
Dr Tijjani Salihu Shinkafi, PhD, Department of Biochemistry, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto can be reached via: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>