Letter to fellows

Dear Fellows,

We are looking forward to welcoming you to JAS 3 in Nigeria by August. Overall the purpose of JAS 3 is to provide you with protected space to:

·        analyse and write up your thesis 

·        present sections of your work

·        critique your own work

·        offer collegial critique to other fellows

·        make use of the resource people who will be available to you during the JAS.

It is best if you are well prepared and understand our expectations of you before and during JAS 3 as follows:

1.      Bring your data to JAS 3 because you will have adequate time to analyse with facilitators who are experts in data analysis

2.      Submit your updated literature review to ESE:O for their guidance and input

3.      Draw up a plan of what you want to get out of JAS 3

4.      Bring a detailed data analysis plan by objective (see attached for examples). Please note that you will be using this on the first day of the JAS 3

5.      Review of literature is important because you cannot write without reading and we assume that you have been doing an on-going literature search. Kindly make sure that you bring the relevant literature and your endnote library to JAS 3 it will guide your discussion as you interpret your findings.

6.      It is compulsory for you to develop a full length manuscript from the data that you have collected and submit to carta@aphrc.org and copy oladapo.olayemi@yahoo.com and cl_funke@yahoo.com on or before July 25, 2016. You will need this for the manuscript club. Also we strongly suggest that you look at this website in thinking about writing up your PhD: (http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/hdr/write/5.8.html)

7.      Prior to JAS 3, make sure you had a detailed discussion with your supervisor(s) so that you are well prepared to make the best use of JAS. This will also enable you to bring your supervisors’ expertise to bear on the way you approach your PhD write up.

8.      During the JAS 3, we expect you to be able to articulate your needs, be self-directed/motivated and maximize the available resources.  The facilitators have different skills such as quantitative, qualitative, research findings presentation, synthesis of findings from mixed method and librarian that can assist with searching data bases.

9.      At the end of each week you will benefit most from the JAS if you review what you have achieved and make a work plan for the next week (a report template will be given to you).  It is compulsory for you to fill as we will need this during the diagnostic session at the start of every week. Kindly email the report at the end of each week to carta@aphrc.org and copy oladapo.olayemi@yahoo.com and cl_funke@yahoo.com.

10.   Remember often in academic work you may have to make a judgement about competing advice. You will have excellent and important advice primarily from your supervisor(s). At JAS 3 you will also get feedback from various facilitators or fellows– this may not always be the same, we hope it will be complimentary but it could be contradictory. You need to make your own judgment on how to use the advice and justify why you are taking a particular approach to your analysis or interpretation of data. The important thing is that your justification is coherent and well argued. Being open to critique and engaging with it however is important.

We believe that JAS 3 will be a very creative time and wish you all the best as you progress to the next stage of your PhD.

Peter Ngure