Penn State

The Population Research Institute (PRI) at Pennsylvania State University has trained world class population scientists for more than forty years, drawing on more than sixty faculty members for its acclaimed dual degree graduate programs in demography. PRI works in partnership with the Regional Institute for Population Studies at the University of Ghana (RIPS, a Hewlett Foundation grantee) to enhance the doctoral training of African scholars studying at RIPS. The recommended grant would continue support for PRI to train RIPS’ top doctoral candidates for a year at Penn State, where they receive intensive dissertation mentorship, and access to coursework in advanced methodologies currently unavailable at their home institution. Following the year at PRI, RIPS fellows return to Africa to complete their doctoral programs, carrying with them prospective research relationships that will support their early career development. The partnership has already begun to bear fruit: two of the first PRI-RIPS fellows will step into tenure track faculty positions at the University of Ghana within the next year.