Updates on Students Conference and Competition

Introduction

The 2nd EPRN student conference and competition is keeping pace with planned activities. As mentioned in the previous article, an awaited training on “Research Methodology” was scheduled after the submission deadline. The training took place on the 18th, September, 2018 at UR/CBE from 8 up to 5P.M. The purpose of this training was to empower all participants in the research paper (abstract) competition with a set of skills and enhanced understanding of different methods, approaches required to make a good scientific paper.
Besides this, the reading culture supplemented with the critical and analytical skills required to make a convincing abstract is instilled in the participants of this competition. EPRN Rwanda therefore, sees set out objectives accomplished.

Training

At the opening, out of 34 abstracts, a class of 27 students was present in the training on “Research Methodology” coming from different Universities including The University of Rwanda, KIM, KEPLER, University Of Kigali, INES-Ruhengeri, ULK and the African Leadership University. The trainer of the day was Ndikubwimana Jean Bosco, an esteemed member of EPRN, a lecturer in UR/CBE Huye campus and a student of 2017 AQEPD cohort. The latter is an academic bridge program intended to prepare suited master graduates in Economics for their doctorate studies, jointly organized by the University of Rwanda and German universities. An important focus of this Program is to upgrade and fine tune their research skills to the presentable level of Doctorate. Hence, the qualification of Jean Bosco was matching with the expectations of the training even though this had to be brought down to the level of undergraduate

On the agenda of the Research Methodology training was three topics under the theoretical and practical parts :

  • Research Methodology
  • Surveys and Sampling techniques
  • Using R for data analytics and graphics (practice)
    An engaging atmosphere was initiated after all participants introduced each other to the rest of the class. The training gave insights to the rationale behind conducting a research, the research process, data generation methods, analysis and reporting. In the meantime, after the coffee break, the EPRN coordinator gave welcoming remarks to all who expressed their interest in the student competition, encouraged them to keep the spirit of search even after this competition and wished the best luck to all.
    In the afternoon, a session on the use of R in the analysis and interpretation of results was conducted by Jean Bosco assistant. The choice of this software was based on the fact that the future of interpretation lies in the big data analysis, hence the use of R in the field of Economics.

Way forward

Although the training on Research methodology was extended to all abstracts’ authors, only 15 best abstracts will be selected and communicated two days after the training. The latter will be invited to make a first draft of their research paper putting to use the acquired skills in the previous research and submit before the 15th October, 2018.

Study