British Academy Writing Workshop launched at Hawassa University

British Academy Writing Workshop, a project funded by the British Academy and executed by Hawassa University in collaboration with the University of East London and Bahir Dar University has launched a three day training for young researchers and PhD candidates on February 21, 2024 at AU Hall, Main Campus.

Dr. Tafesse Matewos , V/President for RTT at HU stated in his opening speech that as one of the pioneer universities in Ethiopia with more than 108,000 graduated alumni across the world by now, Hawassa University, is transitioning to be an autonomous research university with expected at improvement in research and publication capacity of its academic staff and graduate students at large. Dr. Tafesse underscored that about 800 articles were published on internationally accredited journals in the last six months by early career researchers and doctoral staff of HU which is encouraging, but poor writing skill and lack of confidence have been hampering their chances to do more. He expressed his gratitude and hope that the workshop will contribute to capacity enhancement of the researchers.

Dr. Seyoum Yunkura, senior researcher  in Economics and coordinator of the project at HU also said that the aim of the workshop is to improve the writing skill and understanding of publication options for early career researchers and post graduate students through a series of trainings in hybrid mode with selected Ethiopian Universities and University of East London, England. Dr. Seyoum mentioned that improving the confidence and publication submission rate of early career researchers and postgraduate students especially women through four rounds of one-to-one mentoring meeting with experienced published scholars in Ethiopia and UK is the main duty during the workshop.

Dr. Meera Tiwari and Dr. Susannah Pickering Saqqa, veteran researchers from the British Academy and University of East London joined the workshop online with participants confirming  that they are keen to work in solidarity with Ethiopian research Universities on writing and mentoring programme for early career researchers and PhD students. A total of 40 trainees composed of doctoral students and academic staff from Addis Ababa, Jimma, Haramaya, Hawassa Universities, and University of Gonder are attending the three day workshop at HU.