Webinar series: Preparing for graduate study abroad for African students
Each year, J-PAL Africa runs a three-part webinar series providing information on pursuing graduate study abroad. The first webinar provides guidance on how to prepare for a graduate program in Economics abroad while the second and third webinars provide information on how to put together a competitive application for a Masters or PhD program in Economics, Public Policy or related fields in North America and Europe.
All webinars for 2024 have been concluded. Recordings of the webinars are available here. For those interested in applying to graduate programs in 2026, we would encourage you to join next year's webinar series, which will take place between February and October 2025. To be informed of when applications for the 2025 webinar series open, please email Lauren Roode.
Webinar 1: How to prepare for graduate study abroad
This first instalment in the series targets Africans who would like information on pathways to acquire the skills and experience that sets one up for graduate study abroad and strengthens one's application. This year our webinar featured Dr Monica Lambon-Quayefio, J-PAL invited researcher and Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr Augustin Tapsoba, Assistant Professor of Economics at Toulouse School of Economics, Linda Maokomatanda, PhD student at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and Dr Marina Ngoma, recent PhD graduate from Tufts University and Economist in the World Bank's YPP program. Next year's webinar will take place in early 2025.
Webinar 2: Putting together a successful application, North America edition
The second instalment of the Pre-PhD webinar series targets prospective African students who are preparing to apply to PhD programs in North America. This year's edition featured a panel of admissions faculty from a number of schools including McGill University, Princeton University, Tufts University, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, University of Delaware, Yale University, University of Virginia, and Cornell University. At the end of the webinar, breakout sessions give attendees a chance to ask questions directly of admissions faculty. Next year's webinar will take place in late 2025.
Webinar 3: Putting together a successful application, Europe and UK edition
The third and final instalment of the Pre-PhD webinar series targets prospective African students who are preparing to apply to Masters or PhD programs in Europe. This year's edition featured a panel of admissions faculty from University of Louvain, Trinity College Dublin, Stockholm University, NOVA School of Business and Economics, CERDI at the University Clermont Auvergne, University of Potsdam, Oxford University, Tinbergen Institute and ETH Zurich. At the end of the webinar, participants had a chance to ask questions directly of admissions faculty in breakout groups. Next year's webinar will take place in late 2025.
Resources
Below we provide links to a number of written resources that may be helpful in the application process. They were last updated in February 2024 and may not be comprehensive, but we hope they will serve as a useful starting point in your PhD application journey.