Association of African Universities (AAU)
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Association of African Universities
P. O. Box AN5744, Accra-North, Ghana
Tel: +233-21-774495/761588
Fax: +233-21-774821
Email: info@aau.org
Website: http://www.aau.org
Prof. Akilagpa Sawyerr, Secretary-General (Ghana)
Prof. Pancras John Mukasa L Ssebuwufu, Director of Research & Programs (Uganda)
Dr. Pashal Hoba, Head, Communication & Services (Côte d'Ivoire)
Description
The Association of African Universities (AAU) is an international non-governmental organization set up by the universities in Africa to promote cooperation among themselves and with the international academic community. The AAU, whose headquarters are in Accra, Ghana, was established in November 1967 at a founding conference in Rabat, Morocco, where representatives of 34 universities adopted the constitution of the Association. This followed earlier consultations among executive heads of African universities at a UNESCO conference on higher education in Antananarivo, Madagascar, in 1962 and a conference in Khartoum, Sudan, in 1963.
Membership of the Association is open to universities and other institutions of higher education in Africa, as well as organizations and networks, African or other, whose members are universities or which are engaged in supporting universities.
The mission of the AAU is to raise the quality of higher education in Africa and strengthen its contribution to African development by fostering collaboration among its member institutions; by providing support to their core functions of teaching, learning, research and community engagement; and by facilitating critical reflection on, and consensus building around, issues affecting higher education and the development of Africa.
It seeks to fulfill these objectives by collecting, classifying and disseminating information on higher education and research, particularly in Africa; facilitating cooperation between its members and the international academic world; studying and publicize and advocate the educational and related needs of African higher education institutions; and facilitating the exchange of information and experience among members of the academic community, and promote best practices. To complement this, the AAU runs the following programs and services: Study Program on Higher Education Management in Africa; International Fellowships Program (West Africa Region); Staff Exchange; AAI/AAU First Data Western Union Fellowship; Association for the Development of Education in Africa’s Working Group on Higher Education (ADEA/WGHE); and the Roster of African Professionals (ROAP). The AAU has worked in collaboration with donors including the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the MacArthur Foundation, IDRC, Sida/SAREC and CIDA
Track Record
The Association has 199 public and private tertiary institution members drawn from 45 African countries. In its 40 years of existence, the Association has provided a platform for research, reflection, consultation, debates, cooperation and collaboration on issues pertaining to higher education. The Association possesses a unique capacity to convene higher education institutional leaders and policy-makers from all parts of the continent and on key issues related to African higher education and development, as demonstrated in the WTO/GATS workshop held in Ghana in April 2004. In addition, the Association provides leadership in the identification of emerging issues and support for debating them and facilitating appropriate follow-up action by its members, partners and other stakeholders. The association is greatly supported by its member institutions as reflected in their willingness to organize and host AAU events. This credibility is similarly recognized by African governments and continental organizations—including the AU and NEPAD—as well as local and international partners.
The integration of ICT into teaching, learning, research, information dissemination and management activities has been a priority issue in African higher education for many years. Among the many initiatives in this regard, the AAU initiated an ICT project in 2001 under the title, “Study on the Use and Application of Information and Communication Technologies in Higher Education Institutions in Africa”, with the limited objective of creating a toolkit for the institutional self-assessment of ICT maturity. Further, since it is mandated to coordinate many ICT initiatives, it formed a Research and Education Networking Unit to act as a focal point in this aspect. Also the AAU continues its efforts at expanding the ongoing HIV/AIDS Project to ensure that tertiary education institutions in Africa contribute to the production of qualified human resource capable of tackling the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Challenges
The demand for admission into Africa’s universities far exceeds their capacity to accommodate and provide for effective learning. Invariably, the largest share of financial resources is allocated to staff emoluments, leading to deteriorating infrastructure as a major obstacle to creating an appropriate learning environment. Besides, the gap between Africa and the industrialized countries in relation to research and development activity continues to grow. Disparities are even wider in relation to the transfer of knowledge to industry and society. Consequently, while knowledge-based societies are taking hold in other regions of the world, Africa continues to lag behind.
The political climate, within which higher education institutions operate in Africa remains a major challenge due to conflicts and wars that have bred uncertainty, accelerated the brain drain and disrupted academic work. This has impacted on African higher education institutions across the continent as sites for free and rigorous pursuit of knowledge and intellectual debate. Despite this grim situation, AAU is determined to play its catalytic role within the new zeal of the AU and NEPAD.
The continued expansion in Africa’s youth population will put pressure on tertiary institutions. This calls for diversification of the education system to create the second cycle systems. The AAU could provide leadership in exploring this terrain. The new opportunities in the ICT sector need to be taken seriously though at present higher education institutions that should be at the forefront of Africa’s participation in the ICT revolution are, in most instances ill-prepared to play such a leadership role because of the inadequate development of their own information infrastructure. One of the AAU´s products, the Database of African Theses and Dissertations which aims to improve management and access to African scholarly work cannot be effectively disseminated.
Issues of copyright and intellectual ownership have been identified as serious concerns for most universities and the AAU took up the task with member institutions to develop guidelines for this purpose.
Finally, AAU is faced with challenges of inadequate staff capacity for delivering on the full mandate of running Africa-wide programs and projects, perpetuated by the dwindling funding portfolio, the indifferent financial management and reporting to stakeholder, as well as outmoded corporate governance arrangements. Lastly, an over-dependence on external donors without alternative fund raising mechanisms exposes the association to shocks of external donor financing.
Opportunities
The following developments offer the Association great opportunities:
- The immense social demand for higher education in Africa, and increasing private sector involvement, leading to a growing number of institutions eligible for AAU membership;
- Developments in information and communication technology for improved networking and more rapid response to changing circumstances;
- The positive drive by African governments for stronger regional collaboration and renewed recognition of the role of higher education in development through the African Union and the adoption of the New Program for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).
The following planned programs and services offer donors great opportunity to renew their commitments to higher institutions of learning: Higher Education Leadership Development Workshops (formerly Senior University Management Workshops (SUMA)); Networks for Regional Cooperation in Graduate Training and Research; Database of African Theses and Dissertations (DATAD); African Universities Responding to HIV/AIDS; Coordination of Information and Communications Technology Initiatives and Developing Quality Assurance Systems in African Universities.
