Regional
China and Australia Increase Support and University Relationships in Africa
Both China and Australia have recently pledged increased support for African higher education. The China-Africa strategic partnership has strengthened its focus on higher education, and the Australia-Africa Universities Network seeks to build collaboration with African institutions.
The China-Africa strategic partnership includes higher education collaboration, and was announced in July at the fifth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. [1] At the meeting, Chinese President Hu Jintao said that China would implement the African Talents Program to train 30,000 personnel in various sectors, offer 18,000 government scholarships and build cultural and vocational training facilities in Africa. Hu also said that China would continue to support the China-Africa Joint Research and Exchange Plan to sponsor 100 programs for research, exchange and cooperation between academic institutions and scholars. To date, China has trained close to 40,000 Africans in various sectors and provided more than 20,000 government scholarships. Currently, there are 29 Confucius Institutes in 22 African countries, and 20 collaboration programs between leading Chinese and African universities under the 20+20 Cooperation Plan for Chinese and African Institutions of Higher Education.
Australia-Africa cooperation is centered on a recently expanded Australia-Africa Universities Network (AAUN [2]). The network now consists of a consortium of 17 Australian universities and research institutes and about 30 African institutions. The network of institutions focuses on promoting interdisciplinary research and teaching, and boosting collaboration in priority areas such as education, health, food security, public sector reform, governance and mining. The University of Sydney [3] is the lead Australian university in the network and will work with policy-makers, NGOs and the business community to lead the expansion of Australia’s engagement in Africa.
– University World News [4]
July 27, 2012
Ivory Coast
Universities to Reopen With Dramatically Higher Tuition Fees After Years of Closure
The Ivory Coast’s universities, disrupted or closed for the past two or three years, are due to reopen in early September – but critics are protesting against increases in fees of up to 5,000 percent.
Presidents of the country’s public universities announced the new fees in July. Charges for students studying for their licence (bachelor equivalent) will rise from CFA6,000 (US$11) to CFA100,000, for masters courses to CFA200,000 and for doctorates to CFA300,000 – increases of between 1,600 percent and 5,000 percent.
The university presidents explained that fees had not risen for 32 years, since 1980, reported Radio France International [5]. They also believed students should contribute to paying off the costs of CFA100 billion for university renovations.
The country’s President Alassane Ouattara closed the universities of Cocody and Abobo-Adjamé, both located in Abidjan, in December 2011. But because of serious disruption and damage before, during and after the disputed 2010 presidential election, students lost two or three years’ higher education.
– University World News [6]
August 9, 2012
Nigeria
Suspended Private Universities Seek Answers
Nigeria’s National Universities Commission [7] (NUC) suspended the licenses of seven private universities in early July, and since then the affected institutions have been fighting hard to understand why.
The management of the universities – Madonna University [8], Lead City University [9], Tansian University [10], Caritas University [11], Joseph Ayo Babalola University [12], Achievers University [13] and Obong University [14] – have said they were not informed of the suspensions beforehand, learning for the first time in the media.
NUC Executive Secretary Professor Julius Okojie said the universities’ operational licenses had been suspended for a lack of compliance with regulations, inappropriate governance structures and poor management of academic activities. Those candidates who have applied to the suspended universities for the 2012-13 academic year will receive help from the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board [15] to find places at other universities, according to NUC officials.
– Vanguard [16]
July 12, 2012
Morocco
Euro-Mediterranean University to Open in Morocco in 2014
In collaboration with the European union, the 43 states of the Union for the Mediterranean [17] (UfM) plan to establish the Euro-Mediterranean University of Morocco [18], an international center for higher education and research with a focus on Euro-Mediterranean issues and priorities.
The plan to establish Euromed-UM, which will operate under the auspices of Morocco’s Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Staff Training [19], was outlined in a July report of the European Union Neighborhood Info Centre. Based in Fes, Euromed-UM will be inaugurated in 2014 and its structure will be finalized in 2021. Programs will be focused on Mediterranean history, cultural heritage and civilizations, political and economic sciences and law, and solar energy and fields in materials engineering.
With a 3,000-student capacity, campus recruitment will occur across the Euro-Mediterranean region comprising the 27 member states of the EU and 16 African and Middle Eastern countries in the Mediterranean basin. It is the second university to be established by UfM, after it set up the Euro-Mediterranean University [20] in Slovenia.
– Union for the Mediterranean [21]
July 23, 2012
High Education Reforms Announced
Morocco’s government announced in July a series of higher education reforms, including an end to free public higher education, and several measures to improve the financing and quality of higher education in the country.
According to government officials, bursaries will be made available to students from poorer backgrounds, but students from middle class families will be expected to pay tuition fees.
– University World News [22]
July 27, 2012