“$390,000 fund to address challenges in Africa’s Higher Institutions” – Association

The Association of African Universities (AAU) says the secured sum of $390,000 funding from Carnegie Corporation of New York will address systemic and data gaps in Africa’s higher education as well as build resilient, and quality education system across the African continent.

The Secretary-General of the AAU, Professor Etienne Ehile disclosed this in a statement signed and made available to Journalists by the AAU Communications and Publications Officer, Mrs Felicia Kuagbedzi.

Professor Ehile also said the fund is more critical in this era of the COVID-19 pandemic adding that the role of the AAU in the project is to complement efforts at the continental level towards ensuring the provision of the requisite human resources needed to achieve the African Union’s Vision of Agenda 2063 and other global goals.

The Demographics of African Faculty , DAF consortium announced the secure of the sum of $390,000 funding from Carnegie Corporation of New York for a two-year research project focusing on understanding and addressing faculty challenges across African Higher Education Institutions.

According to DAF, the fund is to enable a detailed study of the challenges that higher education institutions (HEIs) in the East African Community (EAC) faced with challenges of faculty to student ratios and the composition of faculty, which directly affect the quality of education in the region.

The project involves the use of administrative data and policy norms to describe the current context and project the future supply of and demand for faculty.

The Demographics of African Faculty consortium is comprised of the Association of African Universities (AAU), Education Sub Saharan Africa (ESSA) and the Population Reference Bureau (PRB).

A Program Officer for Higher Education and Research in Africa, a key part of the International Program at Carnegie Corporation of New York, Claudia Frittelli, said the initiative demonstrates the criticality of regional collaboration and transparency to strengthen Africa’s higher education sector.

We look forward to seeing evidence-informed solutions implemented within the East African Community by its higher education stakeholders. Frittelli said.

The Chief Executive Officer at ESSA, Lucy Heady, said only qualified and skilled faculty can facilitate quality higher education for students in all countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

We believe that can only be achieved if there are enough qualified and skilled faculty. To make this happen, only qualified and skilled faculty can facilitate quality higher education for students in all countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Heady emphasized the place of accurate data saying this is crucial in the planning process.

The DAF initiative was established in 2018, to systematically analyse the staffing challenges in higher institutions across sub-Saharan Africa.

PIAK