Dr. Samuel Fongwa is a Program Officer within the Training, Grants and Fellowships programme. Prior to joining the Council, he had spent about seven years at the Human Sciences Research Council where he joined as a Post doctoral Fellow and exited as Senior Research Specialist. Dr Fongwa is a category C2 rated researcher by the South African National Research Foundation and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Development Support at the University of the Free State. He holds a master’s degree in Higher Education Studies (Cum laude) and PhD in Higher Education and Development. He has been part of several large-scale research projects related to higher education on the continent. These includes the CHE’s 20-year review of HE in South Africa, the Southern African Regional University Association profiling of higher education in SADC countries, HERANA research project across eight African countries and the African Research University Alliance (ARUA) funded project on doctoral collaboration across 16 African member universities which he co-led. He sits on the editorial board of African Minds publishers and serves as reviewer for several international journals and book publishers.