{Presidents Paul Kagame (Rwanda) and Uhuru Kenyatta (Kenya) are among African Heads of State who will attend the African Higher Education Summit in Dakar, Senegal from March 10-12, 2015.}
The summit expects to attract about 500 participants including its host, President Macky Sall (Senegal). Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf would also attend.
Also in attendance would be former Presidents Mr. Thabo Mbeki (South Africa), Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria) and Mr. Benjamin Mkapa (Tanzania).
Former UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan and Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Chair, AU Commission will also attend the Summit.
The three-day continental summit will be officially opened by the Senegalese President, Macky Sall, on March 10, 2015.
The summit, whose theme is “Revitalizing Higher Education for Africa’s Future,” is being organized by TrustAfrica, a pan-African development organization based in Dakar with 11 organizing partners.
The primary goal of the summit is to develop a common vision and contribute towards the development of an action plan to transform the African higher education sector in the next 50 years.
The summit is the culmination of a three-year initiative undertaken by TrustAfrica in partnership with the Carnegie Corporation and others to broaden the dialogue about the role of the higher education sector in Africa.
Such broad-based, inclusive dialogue took part in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda.
“This fits in with the AU’s development Agenda 2063,” said a statement made available to East African Business Week last week.
“Over the past few years, as we consulted with many of the continent’s leading educators about the challenges facing higher education, it became clear that there is a need for such a summit—a need to engage and in some instances re-evaluate.” said Dr. Tendai Murisa, Executive Director, TrustAfrica.
TrustAfrica often serves as a convener and interlocutor, helping those with a stake in a critical issue such as this to harness the best ideas and chart a path to the future.
Topics to be addressed include graduate employability, gender, science, technology and innovation; nation building and democratic citizenship; equity and access; differentiation and harmonization; role of business in revitalizing African higher education sector; and quality, excellence and relevance.
Declining revenues of institutions of higher learning; meeting the increasing demands for higher education, poor infrastructure; inadequate staffing and research, outdated curricula and poor regulatory regimes in the sector are considered the major challenges in the education sector.
A key outcome of the summit will be the formulation and adoption of an African Higher Education Charter, as a framework and an implementable action plan for the transformation of the sector in the next 50 years.
The summit will present a world-class panel of speakers who will offer solutions to revitalize the African higher education sector.
They will represent governments, academic institutions, foundations and bi-lateral organizations, researchers, business leaders and private sector players.
The sector plays an integral role in the AU development agenda, whose theme is the “Africa We Want in 2063”.
“Higher education builds human capabilities,” said Dr. Omano Edigheji: Summit Director, TrustAfrica.
{{Source: Agencies}}
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