What is the annual PgDip summer school?
The Postgraduate Diploma in HIV/Aids Management (PgDip) is our flagship programme and the first academic programme we presented in 2001 following the centre’s establishment. Each year, the PgDip starts with the summer school hosted in Stellenbosch, where staff, lecturers and guest speakers share information and insights about the content covered during the programme modules and related topics. This year’s summer school took place from 2 to 6 February, with students from across Africa and beyond coming together to start their academic PgDip journey. The theme was “Inclusive health management in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) African context”, reflecting the global polycrisis. This summer school blog series provides an overview of the various sessions.
Interested in learning more about the PgDip?
- Find out more about the programme here.
- If you would like to know more about studying with us, see our study FAQs page.
The 2025 Worlds Aids Day theme, “Overcoming disruption, transforming the Aids response”, provides a good reflection of the state of the epidemic. Although substantial progress has been made in fighting the epidemic over the past few decades, the disruption of services brought about by the historic funding crisis and a growing spotlight on discrimination against marginalised communities is necessitating a new approach – if there is still to be any chance of reaching the target to ends Aids as a public health concern by 2030. That is why the various themes and topics we explore as part of the PgDip programme – which we update and align according to the latest local and global developments to ensure relevance – remain vital.
Below are summaries of the various presentations by the Africa Centre’s internal and external lecturers who introduced the PgDip students to the course content.
More about the 2026 summer school:
- An integrated, inclusive approach to health management is more crucial than ever
- Academic support lays the foundation for success
- The summer school in pictures
- PgDip summer schoolers share their views (scroll down to the end of the page)