There’s tough, and then there’s Tough. It’s unlikely anyone would ever say that Dr. Emmanuel Twumasi Osei travelled Easy Street on the long and bumpy road to his doctorate. Today, though, Dr. Osei will tell you he is extremely proud – delighted, really – to be an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology UBC Okanagan and Associate Member at the UBC – St Paul’s Centre for Heart Lung Innovation. Just a few years back, that eventuality seemed all but unattainable. It was the UBC joint PhD program that was the catalyst – essentially partnership arrangements with other universities around the world designed to share doctoral candidates, and the costs, as they work towards earning their PhD.