African graduate fellowship program, phase III (AFGRAD III) : cooperative agreement AFR-0455-A-00-5020-00 -- final report covering the period April 1985 to September 1997

Under AFGRAD III, 845 awards were made -- 143 for undergraduate degrees, 617 for graduate fellowships, and 85 for non-degree postgraduate programs. Major accomplishments were as follows: (1) Tuition scholarships were provided by U.S. universities for all AFGRAD III graduate students. (2) Twenty-five percent of the AFGRAD III awards were made to women. (3) Dissertation research in Africa was undertaken by more than half (93 of 184) of the Ph.D. candidates. (4) Over 92% (780 of 845) of the AFGRAD III students successfully completed their programs. (5) Despite economic and political instability in many African countries, the return to home country rate for AFGRAD III was 81.4% overall, with 20 countries achieving return rates over 90%. (6) Despite major resource constraints all over Africa, the alumni are making a difference in key African institutions, both public and private. It is evident that the AFGRAD III program has continued impressively in the tradition of the predecessor programs. The academic success rate remained high and the participation of women increased. The short-term post-graduate program was also highly successful. In 1990, AFGRAD III was succeeded by the African Training for Leadership and Advanced Skills Project (ATLAS). In addition to providing awards at the undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate levels, ATLAS offers a range of professional enhancement activities for the benefit of alumni of AFGRAD and other USAID-funded programs.