East Africa: Cross-Border Credit Transfer Moves Forward

Under a proposal of the Inter-university Council for East Africa, an estimated 150 million people in Eastern Africa will soon be able to freely engage in cross-border education and transfer academic credits between 100 universities in the region. The proposal would create a common higher education area in the East African Community, which includes Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, as well as South-Sudan, soon to be admitted to the group. The proposal has already been signed by the country’s Ministers of Education and was originally slated for implementation in 2016, but still requires approval by the heads of government. Ratification is expected for February 2017.

The PIE News
January 10, 2017

Rwanda: Cheating on School Examinations Is Up

The Rwandan Ministry of Education reported an increase in cheating on primary and secondary school examinations in 2016 . The ministry withheld the results of 1,079 candidates in total; 641 primary examination results were withheld compared to 455 the year before. In the secondary O-level examinations, reports of cheating doubled from 206 in 2015 to 465 this year.

allafrica.com
January 10, 2017

Pan-Africa: Higher Education Capacity Can’t Meet Needs of Fast Growing Populace

Africa has too few universities for its fast-growing population, expected to reach 2.8 billion people by 2060. This reports the digital magazine Quartz after surveying the continent’s ten most populous countries. Only 740 universities are presently serving 600 million people in these countries. In the U.S., by comparison, that ratio is 5,300 universities for 323 million people. Only 6% of children in Sub-Saharan Africa are presently expected to obtain some form of tertiary education, compared to 80 percent in the OECD.

Quartz Africa
January 5, 2017

Kenya: Government Warns Universities Not to Issue Fake Degrees to Politicians

The government threatened universities to withdraw their charters and letters of interim authority should they issue degrees to politicians who do not meet academic admission requirements and attend the minimum contact hours for degree programs. The ministry stated that is was aware of a rush by politicians and other individuals to secure credentials in order to meet the academic qualifications for various public sector posts ahead of the national elections. Presidential and parliamentary elections in Kenya are scheduled for August 2017.

StandardDigital
December 19, 2016

Kenya: Lawmakers Seek to Stop Public Universities from Establishing Overseas Campuses

If passed, a bill introduced in the Kenyan parliament would stop Kenyan Universities from using public funds to establish overseas campuses without government approval. Law makers charge that universities use public funds to educate non-Kenyan students while at the same time failing to maintain quality standards and funding at home. Complaints include assertions that public universities waste millions of U.S. dollars on ill-fated and sub-standard branch campuses that do not meet accreditation standards in the host countries. A vote on the measure is expected in early 2017.

University World News
December 9, 2016

Algeria: Ministry Creates Online Master’s Degrees to Ease Unemployment

Algeria’s Ministry of Higher Education has launched an experimental e-master’s degree project at five universities in hopes to address the country’s high unemployment rate among university graduates. Holders of undergraduate license degrees are encouraged to upgrade their educational qualifications via the new online programs. So far, demand for the new program outstrips capacity: Only 1,000 of the 4,000 applicants for the e-master’s degree in accounting at Algiers University 3, for example, got admitted for the 2016-17 student intake.

University World News
December 2, 2016