TY - JOUR
T1 - Strengthening post-graduate educational capacity for health policy and systems research and analysis
T2 - the strategy of the Consortium for Health Policy and Systems Analysis in Africa
AU - Erasmus, Ermin
AU - Lehmann, Uta
AU - Agyepong, Irene Akua
AU - Alwar, John
AU - De Savigny, Don
AU - Kamuzora, Peter
AU - Mirzoev, Tolib
AU - Nxumalo, Nonhlanhla
AU - Tomson, G�ran
AU - Uzochukwu, Benjamin
AU - Gilson, Lucy
N1 - Funding Information:
Beyond course design, CHEPSAA’s work reaffirmed a central finding of the broader health capacity development literature [6, 10, 12, 14, 25]: that is, the need for sustained funding. This was identified as a key risk for some CHEPSAA partners as many HPSR + A units within universities have historically been entirely or almost entirely grant-funded, receiving little core funding from their broader organisations and, in practice, cross-subsidising their teaching function through research grant income [2]. Funding is essential in creating the necessary organisational infrastructure and facilities for improved teaching, establishing the necessary posts, recruiting high-quality staff, developing staff skills, and expanding teaching. One CHEPSAA partner offers some hope in this regard, since, through designing a careful business case showing the number of hours each grant-funded researcher in the organisation spent on teaching, which quantified to full posts, it was able to secure two university funded teaching posts for the future. Sharing this sort of experience as well as advocating for increased domestic and international funding for all work related to HPSR + A remains a vital strategy in building the field [26].
Publisher Copyright:
� 2016 Erasmus et al.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Background: The last 5-10 years have seen significant international momentum build around the field of health policy and systems research and analysis (HPSR + A). Strengthening post-graduate teaching is seen as central to the further development of this field in low- and middle-income countries. However, thus far, there has been little reflection on and documentation of what is taught in this field, how teaching is carried out, educators' challenges and what future teaching might look like. Methods: Contributing to such reflection and documentation, this paper reports on a situation analysis and inventory of HPSR + A post-graduate teaching conducted among the 11 African and European partners of the Consortium for Health Policy and Systems Analysis in Africa (CHEPSAA), a capacity development collaboration. A first questionnaire completed by the partners collected information on organisational teaching contexts, while a second collected information on 104 individual courses (more in-depth information was subsequently collected on 17 of the courses). The questionnaires yielded a mix of qualitative and quantitative data, which were analysed through counts, cross-tabulations, and the inductive grouping of material into themes. In addition, this paper draws information from internal reports on CHEPSAA's activities, as well as its external evaluation. Results: The analysis highlighted the fluid boundaries of HPSR + A and the range and variability of the courses addressing the field, the important, though not exclusive, role of schools of public health in teaching relevant material, large variations in the time investments required to complete courses, the diversity of student target audiences, the limited availability of distance and non-classroom learning activities, and the continued importance of old-fashioned teaching styles and activities. Conclusions: This paper argues that in order to improve post-graduate teaching and continue to build the field of HPSR + A, key questions need to be addressed around educational practice issues such as the time allocated for HPSR + A courses, teaching activities, and assessments, whether HPSR + A should be taught as a cross-cutting theme in post-graduate degrees or an area of specialisation, and the organisation of teaching given the multi-disciplinary nature of the field. It ends by describing some of CHEPSAA's key post-graduate teaching development activities and how these activities have addressed the key questions.
AB - Background: The last 5-10 years have seen significant international momentum build around the field of health policy and systems research and analysis (HPSR + A). Strengthening post-graduate teaching is seen as central to the further development of this field in low- and middle-income countries. However, thus far, there has been little reflection on and documentation of what is taught in this field, how teaching is carried out, educators' challenges and what future teaching might look like. Methods: Contributing to such reflection and documentation, this paper reports on a situation analysis and inventory of HPSR + A post-graduate teaching conducted among the 11 African and European partners of the Consortium for Health Policy and Systems Analysis in Africa (CHEPSAA), a capacity development collaboration. A first questionnaire completed by the partners collected information on organisational teaching contexts, while a second collected information on 104 individual courses (more in-depth information was subsequently collected on 17 of the courses). The questionnaires yielded a mix of qualitative and quantitative data, which were analysed through counts, cross-tabulations, and the inductive grouping of material into themes. In addition, this paper draws information from internal reports on CHEPSAA's activities, as well as its external evaluation. Results: The analysis highlighted the fluid boundaries of HPSR + A and the range and variability of the courses addressing the field, the important, though not exclusive, role of schools of public health in teaching relevant material, large variations in the time investments required to complete courses, the diversity of student target audiences, the limited availability of distance and non-classroom learning activities, and the continued importance of old-fashioned teaching styles and activities. Conclusions: This paper argues that in order to improve post-graduate teaching and continue to build the field of HPSR + A, key questions need to be addressed around educational practice issues such as the time allocated for HPSR + A courses, teaching activities, and assessments, whether HPSR + A should be taught as a cross-cutting theme in post-graduate degrees or an area of specialisation, and the organisation of teaching given the multi-disciplinary nature of the field. It ends by describing some of CHEPSAA's key post-graduate teaching development activities and how these activities have addressed the key questions.
KW - Capacity development
KW - CHEPSAA
KW - Course review
KW - Health policy and systems research and analysis
KW - Lowand middle-income countries
KW - Post-graduate
KW - Teaching
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85007485830&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/s12961-016-0097-0
DO - 10.1186/s12961-016-0097-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 27072802
AN - SCOPUS:85007485830
SN - 1478-4505
VL - 14
JO - Health Research Policy and Systems
JF - Health Research Policy and Systems
IS - 1
M1 - 29
ER -