ASU helps University of Guyana faculty earn doctoral degrees in expedited program

Shenella Benjamin and Norwell Hinds joined hundreds of other Sun Devils in receiving PhDs from Arizona State University this week, but their journeys were unique.

Benjamin and Hinds, both of whom are on the faculty at the University of Guyana, earned their PhDs in innovation in global development thanks to a condensed and expedited process that was facilitated by the Graduate College, the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and many other units at ASU.

They are the among eight University of Guyana faculty and staff members to earn PhDs in an initiative funded by a $1.8 million grant from the ExxonMobile Foundation. Five more are still in the PhD process.

“It was a very emotional journey, and it was very informative. Coming to ASU was a transforming experience for me,” said Benjamin, who is a lecturer in agriculture at the University of Guyana.

Hinds, who is director of the University of Guyana Institute for Energy Diplomacy, never thought he would pursue a PhD.

“It’s a very humbling thing to do — to, in a sense, learn about yourself,” he said.

“I learned about my own work ethic, my own work style, and more importantly, it helped with the rigor of my thoughts. And I don't think that I could have matched the experience with any other thing in my life. And I'm very happy for that.”

In addition, four University of Guyana faculty members earned master’s degrees in global technology and development from the School for the Future of Innovation in Society, five earned graduate certificates in global development and innovation, and 22 have earned or nearly completed doctoral degrees in leadership and innovation from the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College via ASU Online.

Altogether, the scholars have produced more than 60 peer-reviewed research articles about Guyana in such areas as sustainable agriculture and forestry, energy, education in Indigenous communities, biodiversity and educational administration.

That knowledge core will help their university move from a teaching college to a research institution, according to Netra Chhetri, a professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society who helped to create the Innovation in Global Development PhD program.

“It’s not just about the graduations. It’s about the production of new knowledge that’s related to their own community,” he said. “The amount of knowledge they’ve generated is enormous.”

Gary Dirks, senior director of the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory and LightWorks, was instrumental in working with officials in the government of Guyana and at the university to create the program.

“In the background of all of this was the idea that you could actually get people to complete a PhD in three years within the standards that we apply across the board,” he said. “What Netra and everyone else were able to show is that absolutely you can.”

Nalini Chhetri, a clinical professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and the School of Sustainability, is the interim chair of the Innovation in Global Development PhD program. She said the success of the University of Guyana faculty members is the result of innovation at ASU at many levels.

“The innovation did not just occur at the top but with everyone at ASU jumping in,” said Chhetri, who is married to Netra Chhetri.

“Nobody said, ‘It’s going to be impossible.’ Everyone said, ‘Let’s make it happen.’”

Guyana, an English-speaking country on the northeastern coast of South America, has had an influx of resources after oil was discovered in 2017, and wanted to begin building social capital for its citizens.

One way to do that was to upskill the faculty members at the University of Guyana, few of whom had doctoral degrees. But because the faculty had to continue teaching, they couldn’t leave the campus for a typical in-person PhD program, which can take five to seven years, according to Brian Mattson, assistant vice president of graduate education in the Graduate College at ASU.

“We had to work through logistical challenges where the student experience was very different because they were coming to ASU for a short time and doing the majority of their degree on-site in Guyana,” he said.

University Registrar Services, Admission Services and the International Students and Scholars Center were just some of the other units that worked on the initiative.

“One thing the Graduate College has been doing more of over the last couple of years is thinking of new ways to do things and not saying, ‘We’ve always done it this way,’” he said.

“We’re being more responsive to student needs, industry needs and partner needs.”

Still, the program created for the Guyanese learners starting in 2019 was extraordinary. The innovation in global development PhD students essentially completed their degrees in three years, starting with an online certificate program.

“And we had to manage a shortened, one-semester visa that also allowed them to return to Tempe for commencement,” Mattson said.

In addition, because of complications due to the COVID-19 pandemic, six faculty members from ASU traveled to Guyana to meet with the students.

The Guyanese learners were from various disciplines, including engineering, chemistry, physics, social science and biology, which meant they could not all complete a single program. The innovation in global development degree allowed many elective credits in their respective disciplines.

There was the usual flurry of challenges with housing, stipends, insurance and transportation when the students came to Tempe, Nalini said.

“The tradeoff for the acceleration is that we couldn’t let the students figure it out for themselves like most PhD students,” she said.

They needed weekly meetings and frequent contact. And because the University of Guyana mostly focuses on teaching, the learners had to quickly become immersed in a research mindset. In addition, some of the learners, including Benjamin, were dealing with the deaths of family members during the pandemic.

“We were advisers on their educational path, but we also acted as counselors to some extent,” Nalini said.

Netra said the ASU faculty had to extend grace in several cases during the pandemic. 

“We were navigating all of that without losing our own focus, which is producing high-quality graduates,” Netra said.

“We maintained our quality by being flexible, open and sympathetic.”

The Guyanese learners were in a program called Advanced Community Engaged Scholars, or ACES, developed by Paloma Mohamed Martin, the vice chancellor of the University of Guyana.

“All of the research had to be grounded in the community,” Hinds said.

He researched the disconnect in expectations between households who use energy and the institutions that manage the power grid.

“People want it to be effective. We don't care about all the other questions,” he said.

“But the people who manage it have efficiency goals. They’re deciding which community should get access first and which should get it less, which should get better infrastructure and how the infrastructure should be organized.

“It’s in that space that this expression of energy vulnerability comes in.”

A new multibillion-dollar energy project is about to begin in Guyana.

“I'm hoping to be part of that conversation about how we organize that new system,” he said.

Benjamin’s research project was about displaced workers in the sugar industry and peoples’ opinions on what should happen to closed sugar-processing plants.

“It has led to loads of information that I know could really help and revitalize that community,” she said.

Both students expressed gratitude to the many ASU faculty and staff members who supported their journey.

“I felt like the whole institution was backing us,” Hinds said. “The personality of the charter was embodied in the people.”