New regional office brings AAU 'closer to its members'

The Association of African Universities (AAU) has launched its North Africa Regional Office in Egypt in a move to decentralise the association’s activities and increase its visibility and impact in the region.

Al-Azhar University in Cairo is host to the new AAU North Africa Regional Office that was inaugurated on 12 March. It will represent AAU member institutions from Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania.

The AAU North Africa Regional Office is the second AAU regional office to be launched – after the East Africa Regional Office was launched at the University of Khartoum in Sudan last year.

AAU Secretary General Etienne Ehile said the establishment of regional offices in four regions of Africa forms a key focus of the AAU’s strategy for effective programme delivery at the regional level.

Getting ‘closer’ to members

"This new home of the Association of African Universities, being established in Cairo today, will provide us the opportunity to get closer to our members and increase our impact in the North Africa sub-region," he said at the inauguration ceremony.

In his own speech, AAU President Antonio Quilambo said the establishment of AAU regional hubs was aimed at enhancing not only the visibility of the association’s programmes but at facilitating effective networking “among ourselves” at country, sub-regional, and at continental levels.

He said the higher education community in Africa was confronted with the challenge of managing an expanding youthful population that is expected to continue to grow throughout the remainder of the 21st century, more than doubling from current levels by 2055.

“Comparatively, Africa has relatively few universities," Quilambo said.

Quoting a 2015 Quartz Africa report, he said there were a little over 740 universities serving some 660 million of Africa’s one billion people in the top 10 most populous countries on the continent. “On the other hand, the United States of America had about 5,300 universities and colleges serving a population of over 323 million people."

Human resource potential

"Given our limited infrastructural and human resources, how do we turn this huge resource potential in our youth into something productive for the development of Africa?

"The answer lies with us, through the institutions of higher learning on the continent.

"Building strategic and effective partnerships, collaborations and alliances remains, perhaps, the surest way for the continent to fast-track its development agenda and be in league with other regional competitors. And this is what we are doing here today in Cairo," Quilambo said.

Violet Makuku, quality assurance expert and Harmonization of African Higher Education Quality Assurance and Accreditation Project officer at the AAU, who attended the launch and delivered a presentation entitled "Harmonisation of higher education", said the opening of the regional office was “significant in the enhancement of cooperation, harmonisation and improvement of African higher education quality”.

"This will in turn improve and enhance staff and student mobility through the offering of joint degrees especially in specialist areas like medicine and dentistry. In North Africa there is more state-of-the-art equipment and infrastructure that can be shared with students from other African regions," she told University World News.

"In the same vein, the deficiencies of the North African universities can also be met by universities in other regions through this AAU regional office.

"Exchange programmes can also be enhanced for both staff and students, with internship or attachment as one of the top priority aspects to be considered. It is envisaged that the office will also help to expedite dissemination of the African Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (ASG-QA) and the African Quality Rating mechanism (AQRM), which are the backbone for the harmonisation process."

In addition to being the site of the new AAU office, Al-Azhar University is organising the African Universities Olympics on 14 March and will host the Conference of Rectors, Vice-Chancellors and Presidents of African Universities (COREVIP) under the theme “The Role of Higher Education Institutions in Promoting Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA 2016-2025)” from 8-11 July.

Last month, in conjunction with Egypt’s receiving the chairmanship of the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government for a one year term, Egypt's Al-Azhar University announced it was increasing the number of educational programmes and scholarships granted to African students by 100%