Regional

Ugandan, Rwandan Ministers Discuss Prospects for Cross-Border Cooperation

Government education officials in Uganda and Rwanda met recently to discuss initiatives that would lead to “borderless education” between the neighboring African countries. Uganda’s minister of education, Namirembe Bitamazire, called for greater interaction between the two countries in a speech made at the opening of the inaugural Rwanda-Uganda education exhibition in the Rwandan capital, Kigali. Her sentiments were echoed by Rwandan officials. The exhibition attracted 42 institutions of education from Uganda and numerous Rwandan institutions and education-related businesses.

– East Africa Business Week
August 6, 2007

Botswana

Malaysian University Begins Classes

Malaysia-based Limkokwing University of Creative Technology has begun classes at its new campus in Botswana. Not only is Limkokwing Botswana the first foreign university to establish in Botswana, it is also the country’s first private university and only the second after the University of Botswana. With its unlikely location – a mall in the capital, Gabarone – it only took three months for the university to go through the licensing process and begin classes this March. The university is currently providing one-year programs in professional fields such as information and communication technology, software development, and multimedia programming. The jewelry design program that the university offers is also of importance to the local economy, which is heavily reliant on the mining of diamonds. Most of the diamonds mined in the country are exported in their raw form to be cut and set elsewhere.

The government’s support for the new university was evident at the official opening ceremony. Not only was President Festus Mogae present, but he was accompanied by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Patrick Balopi, and seven ministers. In his speech, Mogae stated his government’s goal of increasing access to tertiary education (for 18 to 24-year-olds) from the current 7 percent to at least 17 percent by 2016. Much of this growth will depend on the private sector, however, and the president made it clear that his government was actively looking for partners.

The University of Limkokwing also operates a campus in London, the only non-American foreign institution offering degree programs in the United Kingdom.

– The Star
June 10, 2007

Kenya

Aga Khan Opens Medical School

The first private medical school in East Africa was inaugurated this month on the campus of Aga Khan University (AKU) in Nairobi. The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the Shia Ismaili Muslims and an international philanthropist, announced the development of a US$250million health sciences campus for the Aga Khan University. The institution will be the first of its kind in East Africa, offering undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in medicine, nursing and allied health sciences.

The new department of health sciences at AKU will provide an international standard of medical education along with first class infrastructure according to a statement from the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). The AKDN plans to begin construction of the project’s new Heart and Cancer Center, a $40million initiative, later this year. One of the main goals of the new medical center will be to promote “high impact” research that will benefit the surrounding region, particularly in the fields of health services and epidemiology.

– East Africa Business Week
August 6, 2007

President Upgrades College to University Status

President Mwai Kibaki decreed in August the upgrade of Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, formerly a constituent college of Moi University, to full university status. The upgrade makes the Western Province-based institution Kenya’s seventh public university.

– East African Standard
August 12, 2007

Nigeria

Britain Turns Away Scores of Visa Applicants

Twenty thousand Nigerian students have been denied student visas by British authorities, according to British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Richard Gozney. Mr. Gozney met earlier this month with Nigerian Minister of Education Dr. Igwe Aja-Nwachuku to discuss the situation. He cited multiple irregularities on student application forms and suspicion as to applicant motives as the primary contributing factors to the large number of visa refusals handed down.

Accompanying Mr. Gozney at the meeting was head of the British Council in Nigeria, Peter Upton, who ensured Nigerians that Britain was committed to providing access for Nigerian students wishing to study in Britain, but that applicants who provide dubious information or fill out forms inaccurately will be uniformly rejected. According to Mr. Gozney, there are currently 15,000 Nigerians studying in British universities. Eight thousand Nigerians were awarded student visas last year.

– This Day
Aug. 6, 2007

South Africa

Nation Faces a Lack of Science Professionals

South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF) is concerned that the country needs to produce more scientists in both academia and industry in order to compete in the global market. According to NRF vice-president Albert Van Jaarsveld, the nation needs to produce more scientists by improving mathematics and science education in schools, promoting science among young students and making more resources available to science programs at South African institutions of higher education. Van Jaarsveld cited a lack of national funding for universities and colleges as the main reason why South Africa is producing less and less PhDs in the sciences each year, in addition to shortages of math and science instructors.

– Independent Online
Aug. 23, 2007

Swaziland

Departure of Educated Workers Must Be Reversed

The government of Swaziland recently released a National Skills Survey that suggests the country faces a dangerous shortage of skilled and educated citizens to staff both the public and private sectors. The government fears that unless a greater number of lucrative jobs are created within the Swazi economy, people with valuable skills will continue to leave the country to search for better work and wages in neighboring countries such as South Africa. According to the survey, a majority of workers are employed in the private sector (75 percent of all workers) and most have a secondary education or lower.

Because of the nation’s huge unemployment rate (40 percent) many citizens rely on the informal economy to make ends meet. However, many of those surveyed expressed having experienced difficulty in attempting the transition from the informal to a position in the formal economy, citing “low education and skills levels” as the mitigating factors preventing them from finding work in either the private or public sectors. Responding to the results of the survey, Swazi Minister of Economic Planning and Development, Rev. Absalom Dlamini asserted that the government would implement a nationwide skill enhancement program. Minister of Enterprise and Employment, Lufto Dlamini, attempted to see the “brain drain” of skilled workers out of Swaziland as a positive, an opportunity to create a “brain bank” when these émigrés return with enhanced skills and experience.

– UNIRIN
Aug. 14, 2007

Uganda

Ugandans Support Independent Makerere Business School, Government Declares it “Unauthorized”

Makerere University Business School (MUBS) opened for its first semester classes earlier this month, despite being informed by the Ugandan National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) that it has no authority to operate or award its own undergraduate or graduate degrees to students. The NCHE and the Ministry of Education have warned students enrolled at MUBS that they are wasting their time and money by studying at the unauthorized institution, but the business school insists that it is a fully-fledged institution in its own right that can register students and administer the curriculum it sees fit. In the eyes of both the NCHE and the ministry, MUBS is an affiliate of Makerere University and all decisions and degrees must be overseen by that institution.

According to a Steadman poll recently conducted in Uganda, 46 percent of responders support MUBS assertion that it should be allowed to function as an independent university, 30 percent do not support the idea, and 24 percent have formed no opinion on the matter. Makerere University (MU) and MUBS have bickered publicly in recent years over the status of the business school. The Ugandan Cabinet has ruled that the Nakawa-based business school does not have university status and that the conflict between the two institutions is working to undermine the integrity of both MUBS and MU.

– New Vision
Aug. 14, 2007
– The Monitor
Aug. 27, 2007