Algeria to fund enrollment of 400 PhD students at Irish University

The Algerian government will grant scholarships to 400 PhD students to be enrolled at the Irish University of Limerick (UL).

 

The program to cost up to €20 million over four years comes as the North African country embarks on a switch from French to English as the official language of teaching and learning in third level.

 

Algeria recently adopted English as a medium of education at its higher education system with the aim of increasing the visibility of research in its higher education institutions.

Per the agreement, the Algerian doctoral student will take one year of English intensive classes and will embark on three years of individual research to be crowned with a PhD.

After graduation, the students will return home to be positioned as lecturers in Algerian universities.

“Our job now is to bring students, who have competed nationally in Algeria for these scholarships, over to us so that they can be trained on how to teach through the medium of English while also doing a PhD at the same time,” said Dr Mairead Moriarty, assistant dean of arts, humanities and social sciences at UL

The program, according to Dr Mairead Moriarty, “has the potential to provide a significant economic boost for both individuals and the Algerian economy.”

A first batch of 117 students, mostly females, has already joined the international PhD program at UL.