The Nile Basin Research Programme invites researchers Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo to join the programme as part of a research group working within the theme of knowledge production and higher education, for a period of five months starting August 1st 2008.
07/03/2008 ::
Our aim is to bring together senior researchers from the Nile Basin institutions working within this field.
The Nile Basin Research Programme (NBRP) is a strategic, multidisciplinary programme for research and education on topics related to the Nile Basin, located at the University of Bergen, Norway.
Application deadline: April 30th 2008. Applications are accepted by online submission only.
For further information, please see www.nile.uib.no.
NileBasin Research ProgrammeUnifobGlobal / University ofBergenP.O. Box 7800 / N-5020 Bergen / NorwayPhone: +47 5558 93 15, Fax+47 55 58 98 92www.nile.uib.no, nile@uib.no
NILE BASIN RESEARCH PROGRAMME
SHAPING RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES
The Nile Basin Research programme invites researchers from the participating Nile Basin countries (Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo) to join the programme as part of a research group working within the theme of knowledge production and higher education, for a period of five months starting August 1st 2008. Our aim is to bring together senior and younger researchers from the Nile Basin institutions working within this field.
Institutional project basis at the University of Bergen
The Shaping Research Universities theme within the Nile Basin Research Programme has its project basis at the University of Bergen through various programmes, centres and departments:
• The Department of Administration and Organization Theory
• UNIFOB Global, location of the Nile Basin Research Programme
• The Bergen Summer Research School course on "Profession and Societal development": http://www.gdc.uib.no
The focus (of this half year study) will be on the role of research universities in social, economic and national development. It is said that no country can do without a research university. Yet, during the last decades we have seen a continuous deterioration of such universities and a marginalisation of their role in development, also in a number of African countries. Lack of funding, qualified professors, research opportunities or demand for research results, as well as bad leadership and incompetent governance, seems to characterise the situation.
There is, however, much general knowledge concerning how a research university might be created, the resources it needs, its forms of independence and different work processes, the demands put on its leadership and its various relations to societal groups and knowledge users.
However, these general forms of knowledge producing norms and values guiding the formation of universities are themselves often generalisations from historical developments within particular national contexts. We know that there are a number of cultural variations in how interactions between universities and society have created different university traditions. This is so for the research university also. Like all organisations, the research university is shaped by the goals it sets and the problems it is expected to direct its attention towards. How the research university organisation is shaped follows from how it is linked to societal forces, but also from how it tries to shape these relations so as to promote its historical role as a basis for independent thinking and acting in relation to its society.
Thus we need studies of how the university organisations have developed within a historical specific context – and also of how we think universities should develop given a number of general ideas about the best practices, norms and values. Thus we need studies of how the university organisations relate to and are shaped by forces in society. How have societal actors shaped the university through expectations and use, political formation and governance?
General focus of the 2008 research group:
The research university – its social construction and its future role
During the autumn of 2008 the Nile Basin research programme aims to gather researchers interested in doing research into how the university tradition in their countries has developed over time, as well as more normative research into how reforms of the research universities can become more relevant for social development, economic progress and political stability. We also want to acquire knowledge about how research universities can interact cross-nationally so as to meet the needs for knowledge faced by the Nile region today and in the future.
The interpretations of university history and ideas about reform for the future must be based within a broad analysis of the links between university organisation and its societal environment. Such analysis will provide better understanding of how different societies develop universities differently, but also of why reforms of research universities cannot follow from translation of certain dominating or popular models to the local situation.
Such analyses will also contribute to a better understanding of the value of knowledge for societal development, and of how a national community, its state and other actors in society can have long term benefits from a strengthened research university tradition.
A research university can only develop if society learns to use it for its purpose, on the condition that research based knowledge may develop and progress within its own independent boundaries.
Thus the more specific topic for the 2008 semester will be:
A Nile Basin study programme on the role of universities and university based research for national and cross-national development of Nile related knowledge.
During the autumn semester 2008 we wish to gather researchers concerned with the relationship between knowledge and society, particularly the knowledge of the research university and how research based knowledge develops and is utilised in different national contexts.
In addition, it will be useful for the Nile Basin research programme if research is focused towards the studies carried out during previous semester programmes (see list below of previous NBRP research topics) to highlight how universities work, or should work. However, this is not a precondition for application and participation.
Such studies might focus on, but should not be limited by, the topics given priority by the Nile Basin programme.
Previous NBRP research topics:
Spring 2007 - Nile Basin development and planning in the post-colonial period. The relationship between river basin management, river projects, and economic and political developments in the Nile Basin countries the last fifty years.
Autumn 2007 - Climate in the Nile basin area, with a particular reference to climate change and climate and health.
Spring 2008 – Water, Culture and Identity: Comparing past and present traditions in the Nile basin region.
For further information on application procedures, eligibility, selection process etc., please refer to the following web page: http://www.nile.uib.no/vacancies.php