Formation Continue du Supérieur

By Yojana Sharma. A meeting of the Research, Higher Education, Development and Innovation – RHEDI – initiative’s Executive Leadership Programme held in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia from 17-21 November heard how research leaders are grappling with far-reaching changes in how research is conducted in institutions, and how they can be better prepared with new skills and training in research management. Read more...

By Munyaradzi Makoni. The advanced technological skills required to run the Square Kilometre Array, or SKA – a mega-research project due to become fully operational in 2020 in South Africa and eight other African countries – are scarce in Africa. But efforts to rectify that are gathering momentum.
The SKA is a €1.5 billion (US$1.9 billion) collaboration between South Africa and Australia to build the world’s largest radio telescope, with a square kilometre of collecting area. Read more...

By Jan Petter Myklebust. The European Institute of Innovation and Technology, or EIT, last week announced the winners of its 2014 calls for two new KICs – Knowledge and Innovation Communities – in health and raw materials. There were five bids for the health and two for the raw materials KIC. Read more...

By Mohamed Ag Ahmedou. Niger is seeking to enhance higher education by opening four new universities, each specialising in an area key to development. The West African country’s universities continue to face challenges, but experts hail the development as a boost to the education system.
Last August, the government approved the creation of universities in Agadez, Dosso, Diffa and Tillabéri, said Abdoul Karim Alpha Gado, science editor at a Niger monthly magazine SEEDA. The universities are anticipated to open next year. Read more...

By Maina Waruru and Gilbert Nganga. Kenya has extended an extra US$2.7 million to the Pan African University for the construction of facilities at its campus near Nairobi – the Institute of Basic Sciences, Technology and Innovation, or PAUSTI – one of five regional ‘nodes’ being developed across the continent. Last month the campus graduated its first ever masters students. Read more...

By Jane Marshall. The Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, or AUF, has launched two higher education initiatives aimed at French-speaking African and other developing countries. They are to introduce massive open online courses, or MOOCs, in partnership with the Swiss École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, and to establish an ‘equality for women’ network to counter gender discrimination in universities. Read more...

By Tunde Fatunde. Education fairs held annually in Nigerian cities are attracting attention for potentially harbouring fraudsters. The fairs, aimed at students seeking admission to universities abroad, have mushroomed in response to the exodus of Nigerian students seeking quality education in other countries. According to the British Council, in the UK alone there are nearly 18,000 Nigerian students. Read more...

By Karen MacGregor. Universities have been enthusiastic but academics appear unconvinced about the Canada First Research Excellence Fund or CFREF, a CAD1.5 billion (US$1.3 billion) initiative over 10 years that was announced in the budget earlier this year and launched by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on 4 December. Read more...