The SRA Symposium - College of Medicine

Papers
Focusing on “Development”:
Strategies for Strengthening Research at the University of Botswana
Jose Jackson, PhD
Office of Research and Development
University of Botswana
P.O. Box UB 00708
Gaborone, Botswana
Tel: 267-355-2903
Email: maletej@mopipi.ub.bw
Abstract
Successful researchers globally have reported that their scholarly achievements have been due in
part to acquiring effective habits of research and proposal writing early in their career. This they
claim stimulated greater engagement in research with the outcome being high quality outputs. A
survey was conducted at the University of Botswana (UB) between January - May 2005 to assess
the constraints and incentives faced by academic staff to engage in research and seek funding for
their programs. The findings indicated that personal commitment to research, career goals, presenting
research findings, likelihood of attracting additional funds and the benefits of research to
one’s teaching were leading incentives for academic staff in their pursuit of scholarship. The major
barriers included workload issues, inadequate research budgets, lack of mentoring and collaboration,
excessive requirements to develop proposals and limited time to write proposals. These issues
clearly pose significant challenges for academics, particularly junior researchers with limited experience
and who make up about 70% of the total academic staff on the UB campus. The strategic
approach being implemented by the Office of Research and Development (ORD), which focuses
on the development of UB academic staff, particular junior researchers, will be reported.
Introduction
The University of Botswana is a relatively young university, established in 1982 with a focus on
undergraduate education. Since then, UB has grown considerably; becoming more research focused
and in 1996/97 began offering research degrees (MPhil and PhD) in Chemistry, Biological
Sciences and Mathematics. The 5-year University development plan, which ended in 2003 sought
to increase research capacity across all disciplines, improve the quality of research conducted
by academic staff, improve research training for undergraduate students, increase and improve
research training for staff, increase efficiencies for research administration and extend researchbased
knowledge for the benefit of the community and the nation (GOB, 1998).
The University’s commitment to research was evidenced in 2001 by the establishment of the Office
for Research Development (ORD) that reported directly to the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic
Affairs. Until 1999, research was managed by the then National Institute for Development
Research and Documentation (NIR), which was disbanded following a strategic planning exercise.
This change has resulted in a re-emphasis on strategic management of research at UB. The current
structure includes a Director with staff portfolios including Deputy Director, Assistant Director
Research Quality Management, Assistant Director Research Funding and Assistant Director
Commercialisation and Intellectual Property (vacant to be advertised) as well as 5 administrative
officers with the responsibility to support and guide research at UB.
Shaping the Future, which describes UB’s strategic and development plan from 2003 – 2008 and
beyond, envisages the University as becoming a centre of excellence in Africa and the world (UB,
2003a). From the recently filled positions of Assistant Directors and the ORD’s own strategic
planning exercises, it is evident that repositioning research to a higher level is a priority at UB.
132 2005 Symposium Proceedings Book