IAU Horizons 19.2 - Message from the Secretary General

The latest edition of the IAU Horizons (Vol. 19 No.2) is now available online. The In Focus section of the magazine includes 14 papers focusing on Innovative Approaches to Doctoral Education in Africa.
Ofering doctoral educati on has become for some, a sine qua non condition of a true university, a key indicator of research-based education and certainly an essential ingredient of innovation. Thus, the state and quality of doctoral programs, their evolution and development are at the centre of much attention, including in African higher education institutions. Doctoral education in Africa is the subject of the ‘In Focus’ section in this issue of IAU Horizons. The papers presented, coming from a variety of countries in sub- Saharan Africa, offer a concentrate of the challenges being addressed with more or less success, as leaders and academics strive to increase both the quality and the quantity of doctorate holders. Noting, inter alia, the absence of policy frameworks to structure doctoral education, the lack of financial resources to support their development, a very serious shortage of qualified supervisors in most countries and several other issues, the authors also report on initiatives and projects that offer possible solutions. Many of the authors are from universities that have taken part in the IAU project which has for some time now examined the ways doctoral education is changing and what models are being taken up in various universities in Africa. More information on this project is available at IAU’s new portal: www.idea-phd.net/.
Among its other regular features this issue of the IAU’s magazine includes a round-up of news from IAU Board Members who met in Salford, UK for the first Board meeting since their election in November 2012. As reported in the following pages, during the Board meeting various Working Groups and Committees were reconstituted to steer the IAU’s work on various themes in the coming months. The Board also set the working agenda for the upcoming months, confirming the plans for the IAU 2014 International Conference to take place in Iquitos, Peru in March next year. This Board meeting coincided with the 5th biennial edition of the IAU Global Meeting of Associations which invited leaders of university associations to discuss how diversity, particularly institutional diversity, impacted on their work. Association representatives from all continents noted that the concept of diversity itself can take on a variety of meanings and can certainly be both a major source of benefits for a higher educational system and a barrier in the efforts to create a strong, unified voice in support of higher education.
On the occasion of this GMA, IAU happily accepted an invitation from the Association of African Universities to hold the 6th GMA in Accra, Ghana in collaboration with AAU and the University of Ghana.
Diverse IAU activities related to the Association’s priority areas such as promoting equitable access and success in higher education or the launch of the 4th Global Survey on internationalization of higher education are also reported briefly. Institutional representatives seeking ways to get involved in the work of the IAU will also find useful information in the following pages, as we present various calls for expressions of interest for collaborating in IAU projects. And, should you not find the information you are seeking, be aware that IAU’s website is now complemented by three distinct and interactive portals focusing on projects related to doctoral education as noted above, higher education and sustainable development (www.iau-hesd.net) and higher education and Education for All (www.heefa.net), respectively. Eva Egron-Polak