Ben PrasadamHalls Director of Programmes The Association of

Ben Prasadam-Halls, Director of Programmes The Association of Commonwealth Universities

The Nairobi Report (2009) Recommended: • Increasing doctorates but protecting quality • Mentoring researchers through their early careers • Supporting local research training - including soft skills training • Re-integrating returning scholars • Developing proper career structures for emerging researchers

Objectives of STARS • Build the skills and confidence of early career academics • Offer institutions materials to extend the support they are able to offer

Key principles • • • Light touch for busy academics Blended learning Breadth of content over depth All content developed by African based authors International reference groups for relevance Published under a Creative Commons license

STARS Participants 30 institutions 10 countries 832 researchers Gambia x 1 Ghana x 2 Nigeria x 6 Cameroon x 1 Kenya x 5 Uganda x 2 Tanzania x 2 Namibia x 2 South Africa x 8 Zimbabwe x 1

STARS Modules 1. Identifying your research niche 2. Finding funding 3. Managing your research project 4. Managing your time 5. Effective collaboration 6. Writing and publishing 7. Communicating research to non-academic audiences 8. Ethics in academic life 9. Supervision STARS tutorial at UCT

Openly available Materials openly available: www. acu. ac. uk/stars