Association des Universités Africaines
Bienvenue
2001 - 2004
THEMES AND SUB-THEMES
AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES AND THE CHALLENGE OF KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND APPLICATION IN THE NEW CENTURY
Sub-Theme 1:Leadership and Management
Sub-Theme 2: Quality of Training and Research
Sub-Theme 3: Information And Communication Technologies: Building Capacity in African Universities
Sub-Theme 4: Women in African Tertiary Institutions: Equity, Empowerment and Advancement
Sub-Theme 5: Improving management and access to African scholarly workProjects on Major Emerging Issues
Sub-Theme 1: Leadership and Management
In the coming decades, African universities
will confront a host of difficult policy and management issues arising
from changes in the domestic and global environment. Against a background
of the demand explosion and the continuing financial squeeze; the global
knowledge "revolution" and international competition for local students
and staff, African universities must reposition themselves to solve these
problems and continue to discharge their primary functions of higher learning
and cultural leadership. Critical to success in this task will be the calibre
and effectiveness of leadership and management at all levels of the African
university. This sub-theme seeks to address aspects of this problem.
General Objective
To strengthen leadership and management
capacity in African universities to enable help them respond effectively
to the challenges of the national and global environments in which they
operate.
Planned Activities
The following activities, building on Core
Programme 1997-2000, are planned:
A. A Study Programme(1)
aimed at building up African capacity for research and analysis of management,
policy and financing issues in African higher education, and for developing
and assessing policy proposals; and
B. Training Workshops on leadership, administration and management of universities. These will be of two kinds:
(a) Senior University Management Workshops (SUMA) (2), for top university executives, especially new Rectors, Vice-Chancellors, and Presidents; and
(b) Specialised workshops on such topics as strategic planning, research management, gender sensitization, diversification of funding sources, and information technology.
Sub-Theme 2: Quality of Training and Research
Towards a Dynamic Process of
Curricular Reform and Innovations
Higher education in the 21st
century has become an increasingly complex enterprise. The complexity is
seen in the avalanche of new and deep knowledge that is continually becoming
globally available, the variety of this knowledge, and its import for humanity.
Much of the new knowledge being generated is market-driven, as the world
of work continually make new demands on graduates of tertiary institutions.
This calls for new ways and methodologies of curricular reform, design
or innovation that are capable of keeping pace with the complexity and
rate of global knowledge generation. The reforms and innovations must be
such as equip students with the skills that:
1. are relevant in the world of work;
- prepare them for the need for their own continuous professional development within the framework of lifelong learning, and
- meet national or global goals and objectives.
A key concept that has emerged in the information
age is that of networking. The AAU will continue with its efforts
to promote inter-university cooperation in graduate training and research
in a number of fields. The programme will be pursued through the establishing
of networks of universities with similar interests and goals in graduate
education in specific fields as well as the strengthening of such networks
where they already exist. The networks will be provided with support for
the upgrading of equipment and facilities at participating universities,
staff exchanges and completion of theses/dissertations.
Sub-Theme 3: Information And Communication Technologies: Building Capacity in African Universities
The status of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Africa shows that the continent is at a growing disadvantage with respect to the global information and technological revolution. More critically, the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Africa which should be in the forefront of ensuring Africa's participation in the revolution are themselves unable and ill-prepared to play such a leadership role, because the information infrastructure of African Higher Education is poorly developed and inequitably distributed. African Universities are thus poorly positioned compared with their counterparts in Europe, North America and non-African developing regions, to benefit from the global information economy and knowledge systems. The development and application of ICT for African HEIs therefore becomes crucial and urgent if the continent is to be able to reduce the knowledge, technological, and economic gap between itself and the rest of the world, both developed and developing.Global trends in the application of ICT
demonstrate that the power of ICT can transform the several interconnected
functions of universities. Among other things, ICT offer the potential
to strengthen conventional education while rapidly transforming distance
education. It not only expand the research and development opportunities
of the institutions but also strengthen libraries with access to an unlimited
body of digital information globally, and bring considerable efficiency
and effectiveness to university management.
Universities in Africa are already addressing a number of issues that will either enhance or limit their ability to participate meaningfully in the global information revolution. For this purpose it is necessary to bring some focus and attention to critical steps that individual institutions need to take in order to meet the challenge of ICT.
Broad Objectives
The broad objectives in this area are to:
- encourage and assist African HEIs to formulate sound ICT policies and sustainable strategies for their implementation
- encourage the use of ICT in African HEIs to enhance teaching and learning and research
- encourage African HEIs to identify or establish an ICT unit that operate at a strategic level within the administration of the institution
- advocate for a regulatory framework and suitable standards conducive to more effective use, growth and development of ICT in HEIs
- facilitate the creation of a network of ICT experts
- Survey of the use and application of information and communication technologies in higher education Institutions in Africa to:
- assess the capacity of African universities and other higher education institutions (HEIs) for the effective integration and utilization of ICT in their multidimensional functions and to make recommendations about how to ensure the widespread use of these technologies.
- Creation of a network of African ICT experts to
- analyse available human resources with ICT experts (including subject matter) with ICT;
- build and maintain an online database and directory of ICT experts;
- establish an e-forum to facilitate the sharing of ideas; and
- disseminate information related to the use of ICT in HEIs in Africa.
- Establishment of a database on the use and application of ICT in higher education institutions in Africa containing relevant information collected during the survey.
- Development and implementation of a coherent programme for the strengthening of the institutional capacities of African higher education institutions in the use of ICT.
Sub-Theme 4: Women in African Tertiary Institutions: Equity, Empowerment and Advancement
The problem of gender imbalance in African tertiary institutions is generally well known. Indeed, many individuals and organisations have, in recent times, produced papers and reports which highlight the problem. The imbalance manifests in the apparent low gender awareness/sensitivity, inadequate empowerment of women, and slow upward mobility of women, as well as the gamut of the instruments of governance, in African tertiary institutions. The AAU is interested in the implementation of concrete measures and projects for reversing the marginalisation of women in their quest for knowledge or upward mobility in their careers at the higher education level. The measures will be designed to promote all aspects of gender equity, especially the empowerment and advancement of women, in AAU member institutions.Sub-Theme 5: Improving management and access to African scholarly work:
A: The Database of African Theses and Dissertations (DATAD):
Although African theses and dissertations contain a wealth of local empirical data, rarely are they indexed in major databases, nor do they feature much in the local or international literature. Not surprisingly, African research has received little recognition, especially, overseas. In North America and Europe, on the other hand, theses and dissertations are well-preserved and indexed, and scholars and students worldwide have relatively easy access to them in print or digital form. Efforts made in the past to address the need for a globally-accessible, well-documented source of information on Africa theses and dissertations have been ad hoc and unsustained, and have yielded little fruit. The aim of the Database of African Theses and Dissertations initiative is to address this problem.General Objectives:
These are to:
- Create capacity in African universities for the collection, management and dissemination of theses and dissertations electronically
- Provide visibility and improve access to the work of African scholars both within and outside of the continent
- Facilitate the development of relevant copyright procedures and regulations which will promote the protection of the intellectual property rights of African university researchers
- Provide support for AAU programs which aim at capacity building in the area of research, cooperation among member universities and networking of institutions with access to a central source of information
B: Digital Library for Theses and Dissertations
The objective is to initiate electronic submission of theses and dissertations. Further to the retrospective digitization of the bibliographic information of theses and dissertations, this initiative will work to encourage further exploitation of ICT through various strategies aimed at creating the environment an creating the capacity for submission of electronic theses and dissertationsC: Guideline for Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights
Many countries are found to have inadequate and/or outdated copyright and intellectual property rights laws. With due consideration for the current developments in electronic publishing, AAU would like to work with member institutions in developing a guideline for the copyright and intellectual property rights for use by universities.D: Collective Acquisition and/or access to Academic Literature
Acquisition and access to current academic literature has been a major problem to most African institutions. As prices for the books and journals increase, institutions find it difficult to maintain adequate subscriptions for the satisfaction of the core programmes.Developing countries have been able to
go round this by forming consortia. However, given the small number of
universities per country in African it may be cost effective to develop
a mechanism for collective subscriptions to international databases and
journals. To this end, AAU aims at working with its member institutions
to establish consortium for purposes of collective acquisition and/or access
to academic literature.
Projects on Major Emerging Issues
A: Education for Peace and Conflict Avoidance
Over the last two decades or so, civil strife and sub-regional conflicts have become endemic in several parts of Africa, with devastating effect on the lives and prospects of the affected peoples and their neighbours. The OAU and sub-regional bodies, as well as the international community have begun to address questions of conciliation, conflict prevention and collective peacekeeping. How are the continent's centres of learning contributing to a better understanding of these issues, and the design of policies and practices to ameliorate the situation? What more can they do? Indeed, what can education do to reinforce a culture of tolerance and avoid the conditions that breed conflict?Consideration will be given to developing a project or projects to suggest answers to these critical questions.
B: HIV/AIDS and the Student
HIV/AIDS threatens to lay waste a large segment of the African continent. Its malevolent effects on social life and economic development in several countries have become evident in recent years. A significant feature is the situation of secondary school and university students, who by reason of their age and lifestyles are particularly vulnerable to the scourge of HIV/AIDS. Attention has recently focussed on this phenomenon, in the conviction that proper education at this stage will not only reduce the danger to the student population, but also establish lifestyle changes that will go beyond the direct beneficiaries of such education.A set of nine case studies of "HIV/AIDS and Universities" recently commissioned by the ADEA/WGHE will open up important lines of enquiry for further investigation and testing. The AAU is a position to develop and implement follow-up studies of this and other relevant initiatives, most likely in collaboration with other interested agencies
Projects on other emerging issues may be developed as appropriate
2. The SUMA workshops were initiated in 1991 to strengthen the capacities of university officials in the fields of university policy, administration and management.