Regional

West African Region Receives Grant to Implement Bologna Structure

Based on the European ‘Bologna’ structure, the African Development Bank has provided US$52 million toward the harmonization of higher education reforms in the eight countries belonging to the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). Members of the WAEMU are Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

Senegal’s Minister of Higher Education, Professor Amadou Tidiane Bâ, made the announcement during a senate debate that preceded a vote on Senegal’s introduction of the LMD (licence, master, doctorat) system which is based on three, five and eight years of study. Under an agreement with the bank for the release of the funds, all countries in the WAEMU must transfer to the new system by 2013.

– Agence de Presse Senegalaise
March 16, 2011

Angola

Regional Center of Excellence

Angola will host the first African Centre of Excellence in Earth Sciences from November 2011. It will offer PhD courses in the field.

The Planet Earth Institute (PEI), a UNESCO-supported advocate for the sustainable use of raw materials, and Banco Espírito Santo Angola will support the new center. To be based in the Angolan capital, Luanda, the facility has a mission of promoting the teaching and research of earth sciences in Angola and throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. This will be done through expert training and the sharing of cutting-edge scientific knowledge between the different countries.

The center’s academic strategy will be defined by the Angolan Ministry of Science and Higher Education, in cooperation with Angola’s University Agostinho Neto, the PEI and the Newcastle Institute for Research on Sustainability, based at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom.

– Government News Release
February 23, 2011

Kenya

Students Travel Overseas in Search of Quality Instruction

According to a recent survey by Synovate, a consumer research firm, a majority of Kenyans would prefer to study abroad than at home because they believe foreign universities are more prestigious and offer better learning environments.

Of the 1,044 students polled in the survey, 57 percent said they would prefer to study in a foreign university than a local one. “The findings show that there is still much to be done to boost confidence in Kenya’s universities,” said Synovate Managing Director George Waititu.

Government statistics show that the number of Kenyans issued with study visas has been rising in recent years. The US, Britain and Australia alone issued more than 7,000 visas to Kenyan students last year compared to just over 6,000 in 2008.

Kenya’s universities are also said to be more expensive than their regional counterparts. More than 20,000 Kenyan students are estimated to be studying in Ugandan universities and slightly below a quarter of that number are in other neighboring countries such as Tanzania.

– University World News
April 10, 2011

Somalia

At One of the World’s Largest Refugee Camps, Education is a Luxury

In one of the largest and oldest refugee settlements in the world, education is a luxury denied most of the 90,739 children who live there, reports the UN Integrated Regional Information Network.

Established at the onset of Somalia’s civil war in 1991 to accommodate 90,000 refugees, three camps near the northeastern Kenyan town of Dadaab – Hagadera, Ifo and Dagahaley – are now home to more than three times the refugees. Persistent conflict in Somalia, from where 95 percent of the refugees originate, means the population in the camps grows daily.

According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the primary school attendance rate is 43 percent while in secondary schools the rate is just 12 percent. Across the three camps, there are 19 primary schools, funded by the UN Refugee Agency. In addition, there are 11 private, fee-paying primary schools and six secondary schools. In 2010, approximately 2,500 refugee children sat for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education. Of these, just over 20 percent earned a place at secondary school. National statistics for Kenya are considerably higher, at 82 percent and 49 percent for primary and secondary attendance respectively. According to UNICEF data, the picture is far worse in Somalia itself, where primary school enrollment is 20 percent, with fewer than 10 percent going on to secondary school.

Despite being classified as a fundamental human right and recognized as providing much-needed psychological, physical and cognitive protection in emergency situations, education is the most underfunded sector of humanitarian aid. According to a recent report by UNESCO, only 2 percent of total humanitarian assistance is spent on education.

– UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
March 22, 2011

Uganda

30,000 Qualified Candidates will Miss Out on University Places

As many as 70,000 Ugandan students hoping for university places this year will not get one, according to a recent report in Sunday Vision.

Over half of those missing out on places failed to achieve the required two principal A-Level passes. However, an estimated 31,000 qualified candidates will not earn one of the 30,000 available university places because current capacity cannot meet demand. Of the 99,904 students who took A-Levels last year, 61,820 qualified for university. This makes the number of candidates who obtained two principal passes two times greater than the 30,000 vacancies available at the five public and 22 private universities in Uganda.

Although the number of students qualifying for university has grown over the years, the infrastructure has not grown accordingly, especially at public universities. Ugandan universities accommodate just 20 percent of the number of applicants, according to Professor A B Kasozi, head of the National Council for Higher Education.

– Sunday Vision
March 12, 2011