APPLY: MIT Empowering the Teachers Fellowship 2023

The MIT-Empowering the Teachers (MIT-ETT) programmme provides an intense, semester-long teaching-focused engagement for selected cohorts of faculty members (ETT Fellows) from African universities.

By introducing the ETT Fellows to cutting-edge student-focused teaching methodologies the ETT strives to foster innovation in science and engineering education in tertiary academic institutions in Africa. The vision for the students is to graduate ready for the demands of today’s job market, equipped with hands-on problem-solving and critical thinking capabilities.

NNPC Ltd. & TotalEnergies EP Nigeria are the corporate partners and sponsors of the programmme.

Background

MIT-Empowering the Teachers (MIT-ETT) is a teaching-focused fellowship, offered by MISTI (MIT International Science and Technology Initiative) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) together with the NNPC Limited and TotalEnergies Upstream Nigeria Limited (TUPNI).

MIT-ETT enables Nigerian faculty in science and engineering to experience a semester at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Selected fellows will observe instruction in their disciplines and work as a group under the guidance of an MIT faculty member, to prepare innovative curricula and approaches to teaching that can be introduced into their home universities on their return.

NNPC Limited/TUPNI’s objective for this programme is to contribute to the socio-economic development of Nigeria by enabling the provision of quality education through partnerships with reputable local and international academic institutions. 

The ETT Fellowship is a laboratory for innovation in engineering education, leading to impactful transformations in the Nigerian tertiary academic sphere.

Description

MIT-ETT will select a number of outstanding young faculty from the disciplines of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, and Geophysics from Nigerian universities to spend a semester at MIT, either in the Spring 2024 (February-May 2024) or in the Fall 2024 (September-December 2024).

During their semester at MIT, the selected faculty will observe at least two classes, similar to the ones they currently teach (including lectures, recitations, and tutorials). They will work on new curricular materials and teaching approaches for adoption in their own classes. They will attend two weekly MIT-ETT seminars, one which will focus on curriculum design and the other to introduce the faculty to MIT cultural aspects, such as online teaching, problem-solving, entrepreneurship, public speaking, networking, and more.

MIT-ETT will cover the basic travel, living, and instructional materials expenses of the participants. The home universities of the successful applicants will commit to providing paid leave of absence during the period of the MIT program.

Eligibility

MIT-ETT welcomes applications from all qualified faculty who are:

• Interested in developing new curriculum and teaching methods and who consider themselves to be change agents;
• Faculty members holding a Ph.D. and teaching in a department corresponding to Computer Science, Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical or Petroleum Engineering, or Geophysics, at a university in Nigeria.
• Lecturer One rank

Application procedure and deadline

Interested and qualified candidates should visit the fellowship’s website. Application deadline is June 7, 2023.