AAUE-Courier Issue No. 66 November - December AAU Activities AAU Commemorates African University Day

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under the theme, The Contribution of African Universities to the Achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the Holiday Inn, Airport Accra. The keynote address was presented by Dr.

1 AAUE-Courier Issue No. 66 November - December 2010 AAU Activities AAU Commemorates African University Day On Thursday November 11, 2010, the Association of African Universities (AAU) commemorated the African University Day under the theme, The Contribution of African Universities to the Achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the Holiday Inn, Airport Accra. The keynote address was presented by Dr. Kamil Kamaludeen, who called on governments to assist higher educational institutions in Africa to develop capacity in respect to research to achieve the United Nations MDGs. This year s celebration coincided with the launch of the AAU & Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) partnership project titled, Strengthening Higher Education Stakeholder Relations in Africa at the same venue. The partnership project came about as a result of interest expressed by the AUCC after last year s celebration of the African University Day, under the theme, African Universities: Linkages with the Productive Sector. AAU/AUCC Partnership Project Launched The Association of African Universities (AAU) on November launched a project in partnership with the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) titled Strengthening Higher Education Stakeholder Relations in Africa, at the Holiday Inn, Airport, Accra. Through this partnership project, African universities will be linked more closely with the private sector, positioning them to better develop the skills and knowledge to meet Africa s economic needs. The three-year Project, which is being funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), is the outcome of the presentation of the AAU Core Programme ( ) to development

2 partners at its 12 th General Conference in Abuja, Nigeria in 2009, and falls under the subtheme: Renewal and Strengthening of Africa Higher Education Institutions of the Core Programme. The Project has three key components, namely: 1. Strengthening African University Outreach African universities in partnership with Canadian Universities will strengthen their strategic plans for improved outreach to external stakeholders; 2. University-Industry Linkages African Universities in partnership with Canadian universities will produce case studies of successful African university-industry linkages; and, 3. Strengthening AAU Stakeholder Relations The AAU will work in partnership with the AUCC to strengthen its ability to support its member universities external stakeholder relations and to strengthen its own external stakeholder relations AAU PARTICIPATION IN EXTERNAL MEETINGS AAU Attends Africa Quality Connect Meeting The Head of Communication and Services Department/DATAD coordinator of the AAU represented the Association at a project implementation meeting at EUA (European Universities Association) called Africa Quality Connect Meeting, from on the November with the Association s Quality Assurance (QA) Project Officer as the Project is related to the Quality Assurance mechanism. The objective of the project is to assist African Universities to undertake a self-institutional evaluation using the European system called the Institutional Evaluation Programme (IEP). The project aims to share the IEP approach with the five African universities in different regions of sub-saharan Africa as a trial application. Given the general openness and flexibility of the IEP, the idea is not to impose new QA procedures on universities in Africa, but rather to encourage them to assess their institutional goals and mission in a structured way, and share good European practices in area of QA. Expectations are that regional associations in Africa committed to promoting institutional development will contribute to refining the methodology of five institutional pilot evaluations. The evaluation visits, which will form part of the programme and would be conducted by a team of international experts, and would enhanced through a number of workshops (WS). The major milestone of the project would thus be the following: Mapping study of current QA initiatives in Africa and refining of IEP methodology for the project. WS 1 for training the African experts who would be part of the evaluation teams on the visits.

3 WS 2 a preparatory workshop for the institutions what will be evaluated, focusing specifically on how to prepare an institutional self-evaluation that will be the basis of the external evaluations. Five IEP evaluations of the five selected institutions, including two visits each from an expert team and a final evaluation report written by the expert team and presented the institution WS 3, after the evaluations have taken place, for assessing and discussing the concrete experience of both the evaluation teams and the universities. This workshop would invite other institutions from Europe and Africa and regional /national QA agencies/relevant organizations A final dissemination conference will discuss the success of the exercise and make recommendations for its wider application and also promote the results to donors and governments A cross-cutting report will summarize the visits, the workshop/conference outcomes and list the recommendations, which will also be promoted on the project website. There was a unanimous agreement that the project should be implemented on a pilot basis, so that after its successful implementation the AAU would have the opportunity to bid for a bigger grant from the European Union Commission. The Project Team comprises, the following institutions: European University Association, Belgium (Co-ordinator); Association of African Universities, Ghana and the University of Aveiro, Portugal. The Head of Communication and Services Department also represented AAU at the EU/ African Union Commission (AUC) strategic parallel Meeting in Cape Town from 23 to 24 November, 20I0. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the implementation of the African Union s Nyerere programme and also to launch the AAU-EUA White Paper. The launch of the White Paper took place at the Stellenbosch University where participants and university staff convened. Regarding the Nyerere Scheme which is an existing African Union programme, it was confirmed that the EU would support the scheme with 35 million Euros, but the programme would start running temporarily from Brussels for two years and later handed over to AUC, when it becomes evident that AUC has the capacity to run the programme. The incoming AAU Secretary-General, the Head of Communication and Services Department of the AAU and EUA officials proposed that the two organisations be responsible for the implementation of the Project. The proposal was readily accepted by the Head of the EU delegation of the EU in his closing remarks. We now have to sit down to see how this can be done practically. The third part of the conference was to work on a final declaration which basically draws the attention of policy makers particularly EUC and AUC on the need to massively invest in the Higher Education sector in Africa.

4 The declaration which was agreed on has been sent to be read during the summit of Heads of states in Libya. MRCI Coordinator visits Crawford University As part of its project management responsibility, the AAU MRCI Coordinator undertook a monitoring mission to the Crawford University, in the Ogun State in November. The Crawford University is implementing two MRCI projects titled Modelling Rural School Based Young Animators for an Enhanced and Sustainable Usage of ICTs in Farming Communities of Nigeria, The project is being executed by Crawford University with Prof. Moses Toye Ige as the Project Leader. The other project, which Prof. Dixon Torimiro as the Project Leader has the university is titled: On-Farm Popularization of Sunflower Intercropping with Arable Crop Production for Poverty Alleviation among the Small Holder Farmers in Nigeria and Botswana. The MRCI Coordinator had also been invited to the inauguration and commissioning ceremonies of important aspects of the teams project activities (Inauguration of Young Animators Club of Nigeria and Sunflower Association of Nigeria, as well as Commissioning of the ICT Resource Centre) which came off on December 7 at Adie-Owe Community High School, Ketu Adie-Owe via Igbesa, Ogun State. The following were the objectives of the review of the MRCI project: To evaluate the rate and quality of project implementation and ascertain the status of each of the two projects in respect of work done over the work-plan (activities, disbursement, etc) To ascertain financial management status of the grants (specific expenditure items and costs, and balance in project account to date); To evaluate the extent to which the projects are meeting the objectives of the MRCI program. In general, satisfactory progress has been made on all fronts and the zeal and commitment of the project teams is commendable. The Vice Chancellor of the Crawford University and the two project leaders promised to do everything within their power to ensure that the projects came to a successful completion. I reminded them that time was of the essence and they should work hard in order to submit their comprehensive project reports, as well as the concomitant policy briefs and policy frameworks by October as was agreed upon. In the past two months, the MRCI Coordinator undertook monitoring missions to Malawi, Uganda, Lesotho, and Kenya AAU attends UNAIDS Inter-Agency Task Team Meeting on Education, The AAU Programme Office for the HIV and AIDS attended the UNAIDS Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) Meeting on Education, in Brussels, Belgium from 2-3 December, 2010 During the meeting, a symposium was co-hosted by Education International (EI) and International Labour Organization (ILO) on December 2, where teachers unions, researchers and education sector practitioners discussed and analysed whether and how

5 workplace policies have contributed to strengthening ability to deal with HIV and AIDS in schools, universities and training centres and to comprehensive education sector responses to HIV and AIDS at national level. On December , the UNAIDS IATT Meeting was held at the same venue, again cohosted by EI and ILO. The AAU HIV and AIDS Programme Officer presented a report on Higher Education Web-forum and Online Survey on Higher Education Institutions Responses to Treatment, Care and Support services, conducted globally by the HEWG of the UNAIDS-IATT. The Programme Officer also had initial discussions on the AAU partnership in the response to HIV and AIDS programme with the German Development Agency (GTZ). The AAU is a member of the UNAIDS IATT on Education and Chair of the Higher Education Working Group (HEWG) of the IATT. Coordinator RENU attends Workshop on the Establishment of a NREN The AAU Research Education Network REN Unit Coordinator participated in the National Workshop on the Establishment of a National Research and Education Network in Togo. held in Lome, Lom. The workshop was jointly organised by Université de Lomé, Université de Kara and the AAU. About 70 participants from Université de Lomé, Université de Kara, other public and private Higher education institutions, research institutions and telecommunications operators participated in the workshop. The opening ceremony was attended by about 150 participants, including representatives of ministries and development partners. The workshop was formally opened by the Adviser to the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, after speeches by the President of Université de Lomé, the AAU REN Unit Coordinator and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications. The President of Université de Kara was also in attendance. The REN Unit Coordinator made one of the presentations and participated in the working groups. At the end of the workshop, a Task Group composed of seven members was established for follow up; The Task Group was asked to develop and present within two months a road map for the establishment of the Togolese NREN. The President of Université de Lomé, Université de Kara and, Deputy Director, Directorate for Information, External Relations and Cooperation of Université de Lomé met with the REN Unit Coordinator on December 3. They acknowledged and expressed their appreciation to the AAU for its support in organising the workshop. They also urged the Association to ensure greater involvement of Francophone member universities in it s activities. The REN Unit coordinator also met the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, who assured that the ministry, will provide the necessary support for the establishment of a NREN in Togo, as it is an important tool for improving the quality of teaching, learning and research.

6 Since 2008, the REN Unit has been facilitating the organisation of policy development meetings in several West and Central African countries, with the objective of catalyzing REN establishment processes in these countries. The AAU helped prepare and conduct this workshop at the request of Université de Lomé and Université de Kara. AAU in the Media Accra, Nov. 12, GNA - The Association of African Universities (AAU) on Thursday commemorated the African University (AU) Day with a lecture on the theme: The Contribution of African Universities to the Achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals in Accra. The celebration brought together public universities in Ghana, which are all members of the AAU, as well as other private universities, tertiary education institutions, non-high education institutions, the productive sector, the corporate world, and the general public. Prof. John Ssebuwufu, Ag. General Secretary of the Association said the Day would create awareness on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's) and identify the role higher education institutions could play to contribute to the attainment of the goals. He said the Day provided institutions that were already contributing their quota to the achievement of the MDGs to evaluate what had been done and strategise on the way forward in terms of recommitting to achieving the goals. The keynote speaker, Dr Kamil Kamaludeen, Country Director of UNDP in Ghana said in order to attain the MDGs it was important for higher institutions to focus on advocacy, work on the ground and contribute to the monitoring and evaluation of educational systems. He said changing the contents of universities curricula, building innovative ways of funding, establishing partnership and doing better by marketing universities were keen to attaining the MDGs. African Universities must be innovative to meet Current Challenges Daily Graphic November By Kofi Yeboah The UNDP Country Director, Dr. Kamil Kamaludeen has challenged African universities to undertake researches that are geared towards addressing the continents problems and meeting the UN Millennium development Goals (MDGs). In this regard, he said, African universities ought to be proactive and review their curricula to meet current challenges facing the continent. Delivering the keynote address at a forum in Accra on November 11 to commemorate this year s African University Day, Dr. Kamaludeen said it was important for African universities to continue towards policy development through research. The theme for this year s celebration of the African university Day, which was under the auspices of the AAU was, Contribution of Higher Education to the UN Millennium Development Goals. According to

7 Dr. Kamaludeen, the MDGs were not an agenda imposed on Africa, explaining that they were founded on a collective will of African countries to enhance their development agenda. He urged African universities to explore new initiatives that would engender grater progress on the attainment of the MDGs. He observed that although African universities had contributed immensely to the MDGs, they had not claimed credit for that and urged them to move away from the low profile posture and commercialise their works to attract funding and partnerships. As part of the celebration of the Day, the AAU, in partnership with the Association of Universities and Colleges in Canada (AUCC) launched a project dubbed, Strengthening Higher Education Stakeholder Relations in Africa. The three-year project is funded y the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), which seeks to link African Universities more closely with the private sector with the view to developing skills and knowledge to meet Africa s economic needs. In an address to launch the project, the deputy minister of Education, Dr. Joseph Annan, lauded the partnership project, saying it will help African universities to deliver on their mandates. He urged African universities to be more proactive and review their curricula to meet development challenges. The Canadian High Commission to Ghana, Trudy Kernighan expressed the hope that the partnership project would enhance relations between the two Associations. She expressed her government s support to African universities to develop innovative approaches towards the challenges facing the continent.

Meeting on the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and Good Practices in Skills Development

Meeting on the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and Good Practices in Skills Development Hotel Holiday Inn, Johannesburg Airport, 100 North Rand Road, Bardene, Boksburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.