28 janvier 2013
Africa is most dynamic e-learning market on the planet
By Wagdy Sawahel. As a result of a sharp rise in academic digitisation programmes, booming enrolment in online higher education and the rapid adoption of self-paced e-learning, Africa has become the most dynamic e-learning market in the world – with Senegal in first place followed by Zambia, Zimbabwe and Kenya. This was outlined in a 24 January report by US-based international research company Ambient Insight, titledThe Africa Market for Self-paced e-Learning Products and Services: 2011-2016 forecast and analysis. The 68-page Africa regional report included five-year revenue forecasts for 16 countries: Algeria, Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Read more...27 janvier 2013
Columbia opens latest Global Center in Nairobi
By Maina Waruru. Columbia University in the United States has launched a new Global Center in Nairobi for the African continent, to serve as a regional hub for research and collaboration as part of the institution’s strategy to achieve a global presence.The Nairobi centre – which has 35 staff members and is based in a large, modern building – will also host initiatives such as the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) founded by the university’s Earth Institute and headed by celebrated economist Jeffrey Sachs. Launched last week by Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki in a ceremony also attended by Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, the centre will be a focal point for African scholarly and research initiatives and will seek collaborations with higher education institutions, governments, NGOs and civil society. It is the latest in a chain of seven other centres opened across the world, including in Santiago (Chile), Amman (Jordan), Paris (France), Beijing (China), Istanbul (Turkey) and Mumbai (India). Read More...
13 janvier 2013
Higher education stakeholders to forge a 'social contract'
By Karen MacGregor. Higher education in Nigeria is in crisis and one of the causes is the lack of a ‘social contract’, according to a recent high-level policy dialogue. It resolved to hold a biannual summit involving all stakeholders in forging a common front aimed at tackling challenges facing the sector.The biannual Nigerian Higher Education Summit will involve the federal and state governments, parliamentarians, regulatory bodies, institutions, higher education unions, student leaders, the business sector and civil society organisations, participants agreed. Read more...
Anger over lean budget for public universities
By Tunde Fatunde. Public universities in Nigeria will face harsh financial times yet again this year. The National Assembly recently approved a paltry 8.7% of the nation’s entire budget for the education sector, and only around 3% of this low allocation will go to tertiary institutions. Stakeholders, including lecturers, students and non-teaching staff at public universities, have expressed disappointment at poor funding of the sector by a political class that has clearly not come to terms with the urgent need to invest massively in education, as the driving force of the knowledge economy.Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Education has 22 specialised agencies and hundreds of civil servants in the ministry itself. It is in charge of 37 universities, 21 colleges of education, 48 mono- and polytechnics and 19 technical colleges. The budget also supports 104 unity secondary schools spread across the six geo-political zones of Nigeria. Read more...
11 janvier 2013
Nigeria: Future of Nigeria Education Lies With Private Varsities
Interview by Dayo Adesulu. Professor Chiedu Felix Mafiana is the Executive Director, Quality Assurance, National Universities Commission NUC. This arm was created in 2005 following the observed need to restructure and strengthen the capacity of the Commission to monitor and ensure the quality of academic programmes in the Nigerian University System (NUS). The Professor of Parasitology, who is also the President and Chair of the Executive Board, African Quality Assurance Network (AfriQan), in this interview spoke on sundry issues bordering on the university system and the way forward. Excerpts:How would you rank private and public universities in the country?
I won't base my comment on who is doing well and otherwise, but generally from what we have observed from Quality Assurance, a few of the university would be struggling because of their age. We believe that the future of this nation lies with the private universities. When we say some of them are fledgling, it is because they will suffer from the pain of just beginning a programme, which forms the fulcrum of the issue.
In other words, a new university definitely cannot have the entire infrastructure and other resources that are required. The environment cannot mimic what you have in the older varsities, just in the same manner as we complained when no Nigerian university was in the global ranking. Read more...
06 janvier 2013
Minister urges matriculants to explore all education options
By Khulekani Magubane.
HIGHER Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande on Thursday in Pietermaritzburg welcomed last year’s 73.9% National Senior Certificate pass rate, and urged those who did not qualify for university entrance to consider alternatives, including further education and training (FET) colleges.
The Department of Higher Education and Training said on Wednesday that it would provide R6bn to universities between 2012 and 2015 for infrastructure development, with the bulk of the funding going to "historically disadvantaged" institutions.
While the country’s matrics who passed their exams celebrated on Thursday, questions were raised by academics about universities’ abilities to accommodate new entrants.
Mr Nzimande said universities would accept about 180,000 new entrants this year, while public FET colleges had 100,000 available spaces.
More than 270,000 students qualified to enter a higher education institution. Of these, 135,000 will be allowed to enrol at a university. Read more...
HIGHER Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande on Thursday in Pietermaritzburg welcomed last year’s 73.9% National Senior Certificate pass rate, and urged those who did not qualify for university entrance to consider alternatives, including further education and training (FET) colleges.The Department of Higher Education and Training said on Wednesday that it would provide R6bn to universities between 2012 and 2015 for infrastructure development, with the bulk of the funding going to "historically disadvantaged" institutions.
While the country’s matrics who passed their exams celebrated on Thursday, questions were raised by academics about universities’ abilities to accommodate new entrants.
Mr Nzimande said universities would accept about 180,000 new entrants this year, while public FET colleges had 100,000 available spaces.
More than 270,000 students qualified to enter a higher education institution. Of these, 135,000 will be allowed to enrol at a university. Read more...
Region could get first foreign branch campus this year
By Maina Waruru. The horn of Africa’s self-declared state of Somaliland may get its first foreign university by mid-2013, if plans by a private university in Kenya to open a branch campus there come to fruition.The rapidly expanding though relatively new Mount Kenya University, headquartered in Thika in central Kenya, is planning to open a campus in the Somaliland capital Hargeisa. Mount Kenya has been on an ambitious regional expansion trajectory barely 10 years after being founded, and has in the past year opened campuses in Kigali, Rwanda, and in Juba, the capital of South Sudan. The university also has a virtual campus in Nairobi. Read more...
Push to improve lecturer numbers and qualifications
By Kudzai Mashininga. Zimbabwe’s government has outlined plans to raise the bar in lecturer qualifications as part of an initiative to improve quality in universities. Standards plummeted during a decade-long political and economic crisis that sparked a massive brain drain in all sectors, including higher education.The aim is for all lecturers to have PhDs by 2015 – although there is little likelihood of this being achieved. Since the formation of a unity government in February 2009, initiatives have also been put in place to bring back academics who have left the country, either on short-term placements or in permanent positions – and some successes are starting to be recorded. Read more...
22 décembre 2012
Report on the International Seminar on Innovative Approaches to Doctoral Education and Research Training in sub-Saharan Africa
This document reports on the outcomes and recommendations that were issued at the Seminar on Doctoral Education and Research Training in Sub-Saharan Africa, co-organised by the International Association of Universities (IAU) and the Catalan Association of Public Universities (ACUP). Hosted by the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development (EiABC) at Addis Ababa University, the seminar took place on July 12th and 13th, 2012 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The report summarises the suggested steps for future action to improve doctoral education in Africa. These outcomes were presented in San Juan during the IAU General Conference.
For more information, follow this link.
Red Sea University participates in a research project for multilingual education
The Red Sea University (Sudan), through its Beja Cultural Studies Centre, will participate in a research Project on rural Beja children sponsored by the Aun El-Sharief Gasim Centre For Sudanese Languages and the Ministry of Education of the Red Sea State. This project will be executed in the context of the Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education (MTB MLE), a methodology designed to help speakers of minority languages towards effective learning.
This pilot project will be implemented in a number of schools of the state from pre-school to eighth grade. The results of this project will be used as a guide for other minority language groups in the country, in an effort to not exclude any child of education because of language barriers and to bring the right to education to all children while respecting their language and culture.
For more information, follow this link.
This pilot project will be implemented in a number of schools of the state from pre-school to eighth grade. The results of this project will be used as a guide for other minority language groups in the country, in an effort to not exclude any child of education because of language barriers and to bring the right to education to all children while respecting their language and culture.
For more information, follow this link.
