A fellowship is a merit-based scholarship that makes for progressive hyper-specialised training in an academic subject or discipline. This training usually goes beyond what candidates learned in school. Institutions that run fellowships select fellows using criteria that make certain that only candidates who have a clear sense of purpose and that are deemed to portend a promise of making good and enduring impact in their academic discipline become fellows.
Orapuh Fellowship Programme (OFP) is one of such fellowships. OFP is a 1 academic year, postgraduate experiential research, professional, managerial and leadership training programme that prepares early career, talented and committed individuals in some under-resourced oral (dental) and public health areas for effective engagement of professional and scholarly activities and leadership in resource-limited contexts.
Participating in the OFP is sub-specialising in an area of interest that is relevant to the candidate’s primary training. These are OFP specialisation areas:
Oral Health (OCS-DOH)
1. Oral Health Research
2. Oral health Promotion
3. Allied Dental Education
4. Community Oral Health
5. School Dental Health
6. Oral Health Education
7. Primary Oral Health Care
8. Digital Dentistry
Public Health (OCS-DPH)
1. Health Research
2. Health Promotion
3. Allied Health Education
4. Primary Health Care
5. Community Health
6. School Health
7. Digital Health
8. One Health
A postgraduate fellowship like this one could
1. be an indicator of external authentication of the candidate’s professional quality
2. extend the fellow’s skills in a way that they can never imagine now
3. make a fellow a specialist in a narrow focus area (sub-specialisation)
4. polish up or strengthen the candidate’s academic and professional credentials
5. give the successful candidate several academic ‘laurels’ to jump-start their professional and/or academic career
6. help a prospective Master’s or PhD student learn more about a preferred subject area, and even contribute meaningfully to it, before begging their programme formally