IAU Horizons, the Association's news and information magazine is addressed primarily to IAU Member Institutions and Organizations, but is also sent to a selected audience beyond the IAU Membership such as Ministries of Higher Education, international organizations, national and regional associations of universities and others.
African higher education in the 21st century (IAU Horizons Volume 18, No.2)
By Heila Lotz-Sisitka, Murray & Roberts Chair of Environmental Education and Sustainability and Professor Rhodes University, South Africa and by Mahesh Pradhan, UNEP, Director of Education and Training. What direction for education in the 21st century? how should higher education in Africa prepare young leaders for the future? These questions are significant, since Africa is soon to be the world’s most youthful continent. An expanding network of African professors and their leaders have been meeting and working on these problems since 2004 when the Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in African Universities (MESA) programme was initiated through the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the African Association of Universities (AAU), in partnership a number of other global and regional organisations and universities as a flagship programme of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.
Since its establishment MESA network has expanded in scope and size. Today it is possible to find that approximately one quarter of Africa’s universities are engaged in various environment and sustainability curriculum and campus innovations. Capacity building for university staff is an important feature of the programme, and training programmes exist that connect faculty in Africa with faculty in Asia and in other parts of the world. The various training programmes associated with MESA already have over 300 alumni. Through wider interest in the MESA programme, UNEP has turned the programme to a global initiative named the Global Universities Partnership for Environment and Sustainability (GUPES) which will be launched in Shanghai as an associated event of Rio+20.
But what has resulted from this continental network? There is evidence of at least 100 different curriculum and campus innovations. These range in scale, from single subject changes, to whole new degree programmes which have been launched and funded as a result of faculty participation in MESA. The University of zambia for example introduced a Bachelors of Environmental Education degree, with hundreds of young people applying for it each year, while the University of Cape Town has restructured its entire Environmental Law programme, with new staff appointed. The kigali Institute of Technology in Rwanda started an innovative community engagement and training programme based on the bio-digestors designed at kIST. This has provided skills development and entrepreneurship opportunities for hundreds of prisoners and youth. The universities of Jomo kenyatta University in kenya, the University of Swaziland and others have developed and implemented Education for Sustainable Development policy frameworks for the entire university. These are just a few of the results emerging from the networking and professional development opportunities that have emerged from MESA across the continent.
At the core of the initiative is a commitment to transformative learning, and a ‘Change Project’ concept, in which all participating faculty or university leaders choose what they can and would like to change in their universities to improve education in ways that strengthen sustainable development on the continent. In the final analysis it is this self-directed, emergent model of change that has proven to be successful as it allows for ongoing, reflexive change in a context where many change initiatives have failed because of their top down or ‘outsider driven’ orientation. Future goals of MESA are to continue with this movement for change in universities; to expand international exchange opportunities and access to the latest knowledge resources and policy developments on environment and sustainability through networking and training. UNEP are developing curriculum guidelines to strengthen curriculum innovations, and support for Green Economy programme developments in universities. The vision of MESA academics is a continent free of poverty, where Africa’s people have the knowledge, values and capabilities necessary to develop the continent sustainably, peacefully and equitably for current and future generations. Read more in IAU Horizons Volume 18, No.2.

By Amaka Abayomi. As hope rises for the emergence of the proposed Nigeria Education Bank, which scaled the first reading last Thursday in the House of Representatives, Nigerians wonder if planned intervention bank will boost access to higher quality education in the country.
Though educationists, parents and students have commended members of the House of Representatives for this laudable initiative, they raised pertinent questions that need to be answered to ensure that, if operational, it doesn’t go the way of other government policies. Read more...

By Marielk. Recently, we posted lecture recordings from the NOMA summer school. The NOMA programme is a cooperation project between University Western Cape, University of Oslo, Eduardo Mondlane University and CHET. However, as a cooperation programme, NOMA has also facilitated the emergence of a new set of young scholars in Africa, a whole continent and context that has previously been underrepresented in research on higher education world wide. In this post, we would like to introduce some of these scholars and their backgrounds:
Gerald Ouma (PhD) has published in Higher Education Studies, the most prestigious journal in higher education studies, he has been appointed Associate Professor at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), and he coordinates the new School (Institute) of Post‐School Studies at UWC (the only such faculty in Africa that will address post‐secondary education). In 2012 he served on the Funding Review Committee, and contributed to the Minster of Higher Education’s Funding Review report that will be released soon...

• HERANA: Contributions to regional development by University of Buea by Samuel Fongwa
• HERANA: More democracy through strenghtening higher education by dr Thierry Luescher-Mamashela
• Hedda Podcast – Interview with HERANA project manager and researcher Tracy Bailey

Read more...

The University of Abuja chapter of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) started a two-week warning strike on Monday over the failure of government to implement a visitation panel report.
Dr Clement Chup, the Chairman, University of Abuja branch of ASUU, who disclose this at a press conference, said Federal Government's delay in implementing the white paper was not in the interest of the university.
He said the union's resolution to embark on a two-week warning strike followed government's failure to listen to the university's longstanding complaints over governance crisis at institution.
According to him, the specific element of the crisis is the continuing delay in the implementation of the recommendations of the report of the 2012 Presidential Visitation Panel.
Chup said the implementation of the report would no doubt commence the needed cleansing and rebuilding that would bring lasting solution to the crisis in the university. Read more...

Education is widely believed to be the key to success in the contemporary world. No wonder many people that were not privileged to attain higher education with their mates find the chance to do so. This is one of the reasons why the Federal Government of Nigeria introduced Part-Time education in Nigerian tertiary institutions.
Students of this part-time programme are mainly aged men and women who decide to obtain a university degree. The introduction of the part-time programme was welcomed by many Nigerians including stakeholders in the education sector. This was seen as a medium to break the inequality in education which catalyses mass illiteracy. Read more...

By Stephen Ssenkaaba. Admission to the university abroad is one of the most exciting moments of one's life. If you have the crucial funding; the tuition, accommodation and maintenance fees sorted, that is even better. But it does not mean it is over. One question still looms. Will you get the travel visa to your preferred destination of studying? With more countries tightening immigration policies, getting a visa, even as a legitimate prospective international student, is becoming a nightmare.
Three years ago, James Tubu won a prestigious scholarship for his university education in the United Kingdom. "I just waited to get a call, deliver my passport and pick my visa after a few days," he recalls. He still needed to go through the visa application process.
As some of the most popular study destinations, the UK, the US, South Africa, Sweden, Norway and Germany provide elaborate procedures for visa application for students intending to pursue further studies there. Read more...