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Foreword
The General Conference is the supreme authority of the AAU. It defines the general policy of the Association, and approves indicative programmes and budgets for a period of four years. It comprises all the member universities. The 9th General Conference of the AAU took place from 13th to 17th January, 1997 in Lusaka, Zambia. This Conference was organised under the theme: The African Universify in a Raid Changing Global Environment: Facing the Challenges of the 21^st Century. This theme was chosen because of its relevance to present day conditions in African universities.

The main objective of the theme was to sensitise member universities of the need to adopt an attitude of change in order to face the challenges of development at the. dawn of the 21^st Century. The sub-themes of the GenerW Conference were:

- Leadership and Management
- The Role ofthe University in the Education Sector
- Quality of Training and Research
- Responses of African Universitie s to Social Instability and Crises

During the conference, important recommendations were formulated which the AAU and member institutions individually need to translate into activities during the next four years. This report gives a summary of the papers presented and recommendations adopted.

We hope that you will find this report a true reflection of the fruitful deliberations held in Lusaka. We would like to seize this opportunity to thank all our partners who made this General Conference as well as the printing of this report possible.

Prof. Narcise Matos
Secretary General

Acknowledgement

The Organisation of the 9^th General Conference of th Association of African Universities(AAU) was made possible through the generous financial assistance of a number of institutions.

In particular the AAU wishes to express its sincere gratitude for the contributions received from:

We are equally grateful to the Government of the Republic of Zambia and the University of Zambia for hosting the Conference and the invaluable assistance and support to its Organisation.

We thank also the American Association for the Advancement n Science (AAAS), United States of America and the Commonwealth Higher Education Management Services (CHEMS) of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), United Kingdom for their contributions towards the Organisation of the parallel events.

Finally, we are indeed grateful to the intellectual contributions of our Keynote Speaker, speakers and discussants. We thank them for their time and effort in the preparation and presentation of papers at the Conference.

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 "The African University in a Rapidly Changing Global Environment: Facing the Challenges of the 21st Century " was the theme of the 9th General Conference of the Association of African Universities (AAU) which took place in Lusaka, Zambia, from 13th to 17th January 1997. Under this theme, African universities were given the opportunity to consider how best they could meet the challenges of the 21st century which arise from globalisation in the economic, social and other fields.

1.2 173 delegates attended the conference from 57 member universities, 5 non-member universities, and 43 regional and international organisations, among others.

1.3 The Conference of Rectors, Vice- Chancellors and Presidents of African Universities (COREVIP) took place on Monday, 13th January, 1997 after the opening ceremony. The theme of the COREVIP was "Promoting Quality Enhancement and Quality Assessment: The Role of Regional Cooperation ".

1.4 The General Conference of the Association started on Tuesday, 14th January 1997 under the chairmanship of the outgoing President of the AAU, Prof. George Benneh. It was opened by the President of the Republic of Zambia, Mr. Frederick J. T. Chiluba. Prof. Walter J. Kamba, Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Namibia, delivered the keynote address, titled "The African University in a Rapidly Changing Global Environment: Facing the Challenges of the 21st Century ".

The address was followed by discussion in plenary session and in parallel groups.

2. OPENING CEREMONY

In his welcome address, the Vice-Chancellor of the host university, Prof. Andrew A. Siwela, thanked the President of the Republic of Zambia, Mr. Frederick J. T. Chiluba, for accepting to deliver the opening speech. He also welcomed the President, the Secretary-General and all members of the AAU who were present as well as guests.

He thanked the AAU President and Secretary-General for choosing the University of Zambia to hot the 9th General Conference, and highlighted some issues related to the theme of the conference.

Finally, he thanked the President of the Republic of Zambia and his staff at the State House for their assistance towards the organisation of the Conference. He further thanked, on behalf of the AAU, the Bank of Zambia, Finance Bank (Zambia) Limited, the British Council and other donors who had made the organisation of the Conference possible, as well as the Secretary to the Cabinet, the Chief Immigration Officer and the Commissioner-General of the Zambia Revenue Authority and their staff for their support.

The second address was delivered by the President of the AAU, Prof. George Benneh, who, after welcoming the President of the Republic of Zambia, and thanking him for supporting the University of Zambia in the organisation of the Conference, stressed the role of the African university in national development and all institutions and individuals who had contributed to the organisation of the Conference.

Professor Benneh also thanked the sponsors of the Conference, who were:

• the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), Norway;
• the British Council (BC), and the Overseas Development Agency (ODA),United
•Kingdom;
•the French Cooperation, France;
• the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA)/Department of Research Cooperation (SAREC), Sweden;
•the Rockfeller Foundation, United States of America;
•the Carnegie Corporation, United States of America;
•the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), France;
•the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands;
•the Ford Foundation, United States of America.

Goodwill messages were delivered by representative of the Organisation of Africa Unity, the President of the International Association of University Presidents, and the Secretary -General of the International Association of Universities.

The principal address of the Opening Ceremony was delivered by the President of the Republic of Zambia, Mr. Frederick J. T. Chiluba, who officially opened the Conference. After considering the concept of development which, he said, could not be conceived solely in economic terms, the President stressed the role of African university in the production of high level human resources, adding that the human resource was both the means and purpose of development.

He stated that with the rapid approach to the 21st century, additional features had come to be associated with universities in Africa, including an emphasis on cooperation and partnership between the university, government and the wider society. He saw the role of the African university as the pursuit of knowledge and truth, research to extend the frontiers of knowledge for use in development, the production and provision of high level manpower to meet the needs of society, and the provision of intellectual leadership. The President ended his speech with a catalogue of the challenges for the African university in the 21st century.

3. PLENARY SESSION I

3.1 Adoption of the Agenda: The proposed Agenda was adopted without amendment.

3.2 Election of Bureau, Constitution of Committees and Constitution of Working Groups.

THE BUREAU

The Bureau of the General Conference was constituted as follows :

Chairperson: President of AAU, Prof. George Benneh

Deputy Chairperson: Vice- President of AAU, Prof. Venant Bamboneyeho

Members:
Secretary- General of AAU, Prof. Narciso Matos
Vice-Chancellor of UNZA, Prof. Andrew A. Siwela Chairperson of the University of Zambia Organising Committee,
Prof. J. Mwenechanya Permanent Representatives of each Working Group

In attendance: Rapporteur- General, Dr. J. D. Chileshe Rapporteurs of the working Groups.

The mandate of the Bureau was to assist the President of the AAU to coordinate all policy and major aspects of the General Conference.
Two Committees were also set up, namely an Elections Committee and a By-Laws Committee. The Composition of these Committees was as follows:

ELECTIONS COMMITTEE

Chairperson: Vice - President of AAU, Prof. Venant Bamboneyeho

Deputy Chair person: 1 member of the Executive Board, Prof. Thomas Tlou

Secretary: Prof. Komlavi Seddoh (west)

MEMBERS: Prof. A. H. Shalaby (North)

Prof. P. M. Makhurane (South)

Prof. G. Eshiwani (East)

Prof. A. M. Ntsobe (Central)

The mandate of the Elections Committee was to make all necessary consultations and propose members and alternate members for the governing bodies of the AAU (see By-Laws Committee) and to prepare all aspects concerning the elections procedures during the General Conference.

CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS COMMITTEE
Chairperson: Prof. Akilagpa Sawyerr

Members:

Prof. Komlavi Seddoh Prof. Abu Zayd

After setting up the above bureaux and committees, four Working Groups were formed taking into account the number of participants (120 as of the evening of Sunday, 12th January 1997) and the number of francophones (10) and anglophones (110).

The groups were as follows:

Working Group 1: Main Conference Room (with simultaneous translations)

Working Group 2: Kafue Room (no translation)

Working Group 3: Nalikwanda Room (no translation)

Working Group 4: Siavonga Room (no translation)

Participants were requested to choose any of the four groups and were informed that each group would select a chairperson and spokesperson and that one reporter would be provided to each group.

During the week the number of participants increased to 173, so too did the numbers of participants in each of the Working Groups.

4. CONFERENCE OF RECTORS, VICE-CHANCELLORS , AND PRESIDENTS OF AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES (COREVIP)

4.1 The Conference of Rectors, vice-chancellors and Presidents began with a paper by Dr. A. Vroeijenstijn, Senior Policy Adviser with the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU), on the theme: "Promoting Quality Enhancement and Quality Assessment: The Role of Regional Cooperation"

Dr. Vroeijenestijn began his presentation by considering the relevance of the West - European experiences for the African situation, pointing out that quality assurance mechanisms should be designed with the following aims:

to promote quality awareness among all staff members and students
to help solve problems from within
to enhance quality
to assure quality

He then proceeded to outline the current strategies for the promotion of quality in higher education in Africa, in the context of such problems such as lack of finance and other resources, staffing problems, high student numbers and ambiguous missions of universities. Despite the constraints, African universities had to do as much as they could to remain relevant and effective.

Among the strategies that African governments and regional higher education organisations have adopted for enhancing quality, the following were highlighted:

regionalisation of training programmes

institutional networks

promotion of the mobility of lecturers and students

promotion of selective admission into university

promoting pedagogical training for lecturers

promoting assessment of lecturers students

promoting the participation of lecturers in the production of scientific manuals

It was clarified that no objective definition of quality existed, and that one could only, talk of "qualities", "aspect of qualities" or "fitness of purpose", and that the questions to focus on in the provision of quality were:

• Are we doing the right thing
• Are we doing the right things the right way
• Are we realising our mission

Bearing in mind that quality was a matter of agreement between stake holders, a number of instruments that could be used for quality assurance and quality assessment were itemised:

•a good monitoring system
•a check on the formulation of goals and aims for each training and research programme
•individual staff appraisal, combined with staff development and pedagogical training
•student evaluation
•self -assessment
• peer review

The leading role that the Association of African Universities could play in quality assurance was suggested as encompassing the following initiatives:

•promoting quality awareness in higher education institutions
•developing instrument for quality assessment
•developing follow up instruments

Finally, it was pointed out that although a national -based quality assessment system would always be the backbone for quality assurance, a national context was too narrow, and that necessarily there was need for internationalisation and regionalisation.

4.2 Discussants:

Dr. M. Peace Lenn was the first discussant, and she began her intervention by giving an account of the work of her agency, the Centre for Quality Assurance in International Education, based Washington, D. C. She noted that in Africa there had been hardly any evidence of international or regional cooperation in the area of quality assurance and enhancement and that this was now the opportune time for such initiatives.

Dr. Lenn confirmed that similar activities in other parts of the world were not far away from Africa, such that commencing now would enable Africa to be abreast of similar activities in quality assurance and enhancement in Asia, the America and Europe, particularly as the global market placed and new technology were contributing to the rapid globalisation of higher education.

The second Discussant was Dr. J. A. Brink, Director of the Quality Promotion Unit of the South African Committee of University Principals. To the problems underlined by Dr. Vroeijenstijn in his paper, Dr. Brink added two more in the new South African order:

1. Accepting an increasing percentage of students among the new entrants each year, who are not sufficiently prepared for university studies;

2. Students unprepared for studies in some specific important discipline such as Mathematics.

Dr. Brink qualified the term "quality", suggesting that quality in higher education should never be an absolute concept. Rather, there should be a "notion"of quality, rather than a definition of quality , and that quality should be relative to the institution, the region, and the prevailing social, economic and political circumstances.

Finally, Dr. Brink added his support to Dr. Vroeijenstijn's view that the Association of African Universities should take the lead as it had a significant role to play in quality assurance practices around the continent.

4.3 General Discussion:

The general discussion centered on conference participants experiences concerning quality assessment. It was stressed that what should be put in place were African sets of reference points for evaluating African universities: "the norms should be defined in Africa, for Africans, by Africans".

It was agreed that comparative benchmarks were necessary, and that external examiners should be used in conjunction with other agencies of quality assurance.

5. PLENARY SESSION II

5.1 Recommendations from Working Groups

The following are the recommendations from the 4 Working Groups on the theme "Promoting Quality Enhancement and Quality Assessment: The Role of Regional Cooperation ":

a. The AAU should:

•carry out a survey on the level of quality assurance, assessment and accreditation in various institutions; reports of the survey should be made available to all affiliated institutions;
•establish regional committees to consider all aspects related to quality assurance;
•assist with the design and implementation of quality assurance and enhancement systems through selected pilot institutions; other selected institutions should be encouraged to undertake exercise on their own, but with AAU assistance needed;
•prepare guidelines for regional quality assurance, taking into consideration experiences from other regions within and outside Africa;
•encourage subregional workshops to discuss the above guidelines and their implementation;
•assist member universities develop quality assurance procedures; and that to facilitate this, a committee should be set up to spearhead the realisation of this mission;
•convince donors that in order to promote quality, they should also support such infrastructure as buildings;
•consider the creation of an institution dealing with the evaluation of teaching staff, institutions and equivalencies of degrees;
•promote regional cooperation between member institutions of the AAU in the exchange of staff, students, themes and research findings;
•determine objectives and missions of African universities;
•enhance networking and linking up African universities modern (appropriate) technology;

•The Secretary- General of the AAU should attend the Conference of the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education to be held at the end of May 1997 in South Africa;
•Quality assurance and assessment should be part of AAU 1997-2000 Core Programme of Activities;
•AAU member universities should explore the possibility of setting up individual national quality assurance systems ; this should then be followed by regional schemes;
•AAU member universities should institute staff development and staff performance appraisal systems where staff who excel get rewarded as a method of improving quality;
•Self -assessment should be complemented by some input from external assessors;
•To underscore the relevance of academic programmes as a critical element of quality, the approach adopted in one university where employers and former students are visited every five years to assess the performance or its graduates relative to the needs of society should be emulated by other AAU member universities;
•All external examiners should familiarise themselves with the staff, the syllabus and the system obtaining in university which require their services;
•There should be diversification of institutions that can receive secondary school leavers in order to relieve the pressure on the universities;
•A data bank should be developed for the promotion and enhancement of university teaching methods and research;
•With regard to globalisation, in education African linkages should be promoted rather than linkages with the North. Globalisation could be a threat to African universities if quality was not enhanced. The development of quality enhancement systems should not be used to further disadvantage those universities in the South that were already disadvantaged

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