Embedding Post-Doctoral Fellows in African Higher Institutions of Learning: Experiences and Lessons Learnt from the case of Makerere University, Uganda

The post-doctoral fellowship was intended to unearth the potential of participatory, and information and communication technologies (ICTs) led extension and learning approaches in agricultural and environmental education in Uganda. This involved establishment of a working team as required by the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) including a mentor and other academic staff supervising a team comprised of two doctoral and three Masters students who were working on different topics related to the post-doctoral research agenda. All the graduate students were partially supported under the post-doc research fellowship to undertake their research activities. This paper provides insights and lessons learnt from implementation of the post-doctoral fellowship as well as progress made by the graduate students in their studies. The key skills gained as a result of the post-doctoral fellowship include among others mentoring and supervisory skills, publishing skills and financial management skills. Besides, through the post-doctoral fellowship, it was also learnt that it is imperative for mentors to be patient in supervising and guiding students with different academic backgrounds and research experience. This explains why the graduate students who were attached to this post-doctoral fellowship progressed at different paces. In a nutshell, the post-doctoral fellowship provides vast experience, knowledge and skills in capacitating young scholars upon completion of their doctoral studies. Thus, in future, there is need for systematic documentation of post-doc experience of the beneficiaries through peer learning and sharing experiences as different Fellows employed different post-doc models in mentoring the graduate students.