Africa Center of Excellence for Climate Smart Agriculture and Biodiversity Conservation continues to examining PhD and MSc Students who have successfully submitted their papers in this season. From April 14-15, the Center has examined members of its first and second cohort PhD, and second and third Cohort MSc students in an open defense session. In this round of open defense, Five PhD papers and Five MSc papers have been critically evaluated by the board of examiners from different fields of specializations.
The examination has been implemented in a virtual and face to face presence of the board of examiners, defendants and board of advisory committees. The board of examiners with potential experiences in advising and examining graduate students, and tremendous experiences of publishing many more articles have joined the center from some international and national research institutions and Universities in Ethiopia and outside. Critical examinations were undertaken, scientific debates have been exchanged with the participation of students and members of staff from college of agriculture and environmental sciences at Haramaya University.
All the presented papers were successfully defended and accepted in the partial fulfillments the requirements for the degrees in their respective fields of studies scoring very attractive grades. The PhD papers have focused more on the areas of climate change and its impacts on agricultural production and productivity with specialization on plants and Livestock. The five PhD students who have successfully defended and ready to graduate can be taken as an emblem of progress in the performance of the Center in changing its objectives into remarkable goals that it has successfully managed to graduate six PhD students including the one that has already graduated in 2021.
By this time, about 48 MSc and 6 PhD students have successfully completed and graduated from the Center. In the near future, the Center expects more PhD and MSc candidates who are on a way to finish their studies by which it aspires to continue to produce more graduates in the fields of climate smart agriculture and biodiversity management.