Association of Commonwealth Universities

This chapter provides a critical reflection on the achievements, over the last ten years, of the Africa–Europe partnership in science, technology and innovation (STI), following the introduction of the Joint Africa–EU Strategy in 2007. Building on the CAAST-Net experience and knowledge, the authors assess the multiple drivers (be they political, economic, scientific or even diplomatic) that boosted bi-regional cooperation on STI. In emphasising the political interests and constraints that significantly affect such cooperation, the authors show the rich potential of STI as a unique set of tools to address increasingly internationalised issues on the global scene.

‘Next generation’ issues are attracting considerable attention in higher education (HE) policy and programming. This is particularly true in Africa, where depleted academic capacity, insufficient levels of doctorate-qualified staff, and the steady retirement of many experienced lecturers and researchers place a particular urgency on identifying, training and nurturing new cohorts of research and teaching staff across the continent’s HE and research institutions. Recent contributions to the debate have also raised concerns about the extent to which doctoral study has been ‘casualised’, interrupted by the demands of employment, and hampered by inadequate supervision and support to develop and undertake research, resulting in fragmentary research and long times to completion. This paper presents the results of a survey of African and European doctoral students alongside a desk review of current funding programmes, bringing new evidence to this debate, particularly around what it is to be a doctoral student in different regions of Africa and how this is currently supported. In doing so, it highlights issues to be considered in future programmes to strengthen doctoral study.

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Our aim was to assess the geographical, social and hospital variation in carotid endarterectomy (CEA) over time in Scotland using routinely generated data, and to assess the outcome of CEA in terms of the 7 day case-fatality. A descriptive, retrospective study was carried out using computerized medical records at national level of all patients in Scotland who had a CEA during 1981-1996. Medical record linkage was used to identify the study population with the index event specified as CEA. The annual rate of CEA in Scotland and length of hospital stay for the procedure were determined. The geographical distribution of CEA, and the social circumstances of these CEA patients were described. Hospitals where CEAs were performed were evaluated in terms of high-, medium- and low-volume hospitals. A total of 2,892 CEA patients were identified for the period 1981-1996. The CEA rate increased from 1.2/100,000 (1989) to 8.6/100,000 (1996) with a maximum of 19/100,000 in Tayside Health Board (1994). Most of the CEAs in Scotland after the publication of the trials were in a small number of 'high'-volume hospitals (> 50 operations/year). There was no gender inequality in the provision of CEA in Scotland but substantial social and regional variation was observed. The 7 day operative mortality of 1.5 per cent was higher than that observed in the randomized trials. CEA in Scotland is performed now at about the expected rate, but there are still probably too many operations being carried out in low-volume hospitals. Length of stay has decreased over time. The operative mortality, however, was higher than in the randomized trials.

The possibility of using chemical changes to confirm correct tracheal tube placement was investigated with a view to their use in developing countries where more sophisticated methods are unavailable. The effect of bubbling expired gases through a 10% solution of bromothymol blue and a 0.25% solution of thiopentone led to chemical changes producing, in the case of bromothymol blue, a colour change and in that of thiopentone, precipitation, probably due to a change in pH caused by carbon dioxide. We also discovered that the time to precipitation of the thiopentone could be greatly reduced if it was mixed with a precise quantity of lignocaine. These simple end points can reliably confirm the correct placement of a tracheal tube at least as rapidly as the correct use of capnography.