Advice for African Students
I used to be at a university in South Africa, in the School of Computer Science at the University of the Witwatersrand. I know from my experience there that there are some very good students in very poor countries, who have not had the opportunity to study in a well-funded programme, but who have the potential to do well. If you are in that situation and need a conversion programme to meet the entry standards for a PhD in the School of IT and Electrical Engineering (and here I am specifically addressing concerns of Computer Science students), information on this page should be of interest to you.
The main issue which I find students from a weak university need to address in their study skills is that it is not sufficient at a good university to memorize the factual content of a course: you need to demonstrate ability to apply the knowledge, to think independently and to solve previously unseen problems. If you feel you have these attributes, I would like to encourage you to work towards being eligible for a good PhD programme.
I should also emphasize that it is important to accept that English requirements for study at a top English-language university are there for your benefit. English is a very difficult language for someone who does not speak the language regularly, and it is very hard to learn the language on top of a rigorous academic programme. You should therefore take it upon yourself to build very strong English skills before you even consider applying for a PhD programme in an English-language university. In fact, this is good advice even for native English speakers. The same, of course, also applies not only to English but if you want to study at any institution where the medium of instruction and writing up research is not your home language.
While there are conversion options here for students who wish to do a PhD without an adequate background, they are relatively expensive. If you are on a tight budget, I recommend you do a conversion programme at one of the better African universities, whose standard is acceptable here. The one I know best is at my former School. There, you can convert any existing degree (provided you have evidence of suffcient mathematical and English proficiency and reasonably good results – typically a “B” average or better but you need to judge your own grading system since there are too many for me to offer advice) to the equivalent of 4-year degree with a research component in 2 years. The programme consists of a 1-year Higher Diploma, which is a crash course on undergraduate Computer Science taking 1 year, followed by a 1-year Honours degree, an intensive programme in advanced topics, culminating in a research project. Entry to Honours is dependent on results from the Higher Diploma, but, if you have generally performed well in the past and consider yourself PhD material, you should do well.
Costing is relatively modest (around the equivalent of US$1000 per year tuition when I last checked) and if you do well in the first year, you have a good chance of getting financial aid in the Honours year. It is important to note that the programmes start in January, so you need to apply in good time to organize a study permit.
You should check their web site http://www.cs.wits.ac.za for details on their programmes, or mail their postgraduate co-ordinator at pg-coord@cs.wits.ac.za.
For more information on topics I can offer, please explore my research pages.