Dear Stakeholders,
The Association of African Universities appreciates all our members and stakeholders for your commitment and immense support to the AAU, throughout 2021.
On behalf of our Governing Board and all staff of the AAU - at the Secretariat, our North and East Africa Regional Offices as well as our North America Office, I am pleased to share with you our Season's Greetings Card, as well as a snapshot of our activities and impact in 2021.
We remain positive that your support and collaborations will continue into the year 2022 and beyond, as we work to deliver on our Key Results Areas for the period 2021 –2025, guided by our Strategic Plan. We are hopeful, that working hand in hand with you, Africa Higher Education will be strengthened to continue contributing much more effectively to socio-economic development at the national, regional, and global levels. The new year (2022) presents all of us with another opportunity to renew our commitments and drive towards contributing to the attainment of the goals of Agenda 2063 and the Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and other such blueprints and plans of action.
We wish you happy holidays!!
Compliments of the season!!
Year 2021 in Focus - Some Key Highlights to Note (Activities, Events, Impacts)
1) 15th General Conference of the AAU successfully hosted, convening 4,344 stakeholders from member universities, development partner institutions, government institutions, private sector and other African Higher Education stakeholders (July 2021) | Access the conference communique from HERE
2) Two important platforms launched during the 15th General Conference – (1) Women in Higher Education Network (WoHEN) (register HERE) and (2) The AAU/eLearn Africa Learning Management System (Access Platform HERE) (July 2021)
3) Elections for the AAU President and Board Members successfully conducted. Please see the full list of the current AAU governing board members HERE (August 2021)
4) The AAU Secretariat bid farewell to Prof. Etienne Ehile (immediate past Secretary General) after nine (9) years of dedicated service to the Association (Access the special Farewell Brochure compiled for Prof. Ehile HERE. Our appreciation goes to all stakeholders who submitted messages for this purpose)
5) Prof. Olusola Bandele Oyewole assumed office as the Secretary General of the AAU (October 1, 2021). Access information on him HERE, and read about his Road Map / Vision for the AAU HERE
6) Prof. Oyewole starts engagement with stakeholders- pays a courtesy call to Ghana’s Minister of Education, hosts a delegation from the Ministry of Education in The Gambia, engages with the private sector and gives a keynote address at the 4th African Union Scientific, Technical and Research Commission (ASRIC) Congress. Prof. Oyewole also delivered a keynote address at the First Meeting of the 2014 Addis Convention Committee, Lomé, 9-10 December 2021.
7) The Africa Higher Education Centres of Excellence Project, which has the AAU as its Regional Facilitation Unit, hosted the 6th ACE Impact Regional Workshop and Ministerial Project Steering Committee meeting in 2021. These events convened stakeholders to review the project at mid-term and strengthen project implementation and effectiveness -Read More HERE (November 2021)
8) ACE Impact also recorded impressive progress as it reached its Mid-Term in 2021. At midterm, the project reported the following successes – (1) Support to more than 14,000 students working toward master’s and doctoral degrees, 31% of whom are women, (2) Over 2000 publications in high impact journals (3) More than US$ 58 million externally generated revenue raised, (4) Internship opportunity created for 2,282 students, among others
9) Other key highlights under ACE Impact for 2021 include the Launch of the Centers of Competence in Digital Education (C-CODE) Initiative (September 2021), which targets strengthening competences in digital education and the launch of Inter ACE Thematic Networks, focusing on Agriculture, Health, Education, Energy, Urban and Transport; Environment; and the network of Colleges of Engineering (May, 2021)
10) Spearheaded by our North American Office, the AAU’s African Academic Diaspora Homecoming Event was a great success (September 2021)
11) The AAU proudly hosted the 2021 Africa Universities’ Day celebrations virtually, in a grand style (November,2021)
12) AAU and The Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) met to discuss the promotion of graduate employability through industrial attachments in East Africa (November 2021)
13) Our North Africa Regional Office turned 2 years while our East Africa Regional Office turned 3 years. We appreciate our regional offices for their immense contributions to Higher Education in their Regions over the past 2 and 3 years
14) Under the Science Granting Councils Initiative, we recorded remarkable progress this year, including the development of an online grants management system for Africa’s Science Granting Councils. Read Press Release HERE
15) We organized over 70 webinars and workshops on various thematic areas which brought together over 14,000 participants. The AAU resumed face-to-face workshops and four (4) such workshops were conducted after mid-2021.
16) The online African Quality Rating Mechanism (AQRM) system was fully upgraded this year, and it is now more robust and resilient.
17) A total of 21 Higher Education Institutions joined the AAU’s membership, with one university being upgraded from an Associate Member to a Full Member of the AAU.
18) The AAU Television Station (https://tv.aau.org/) recorded great progress during the year. Some key statistics from the AAU TV are as follows: there were 14,246 new subscribers to the YouTube channel; and 199 videos of various programmes were released.
19) The AAU obtained funding under the COVID-19 Africa Rapid Grant Fund to roll out the COVID-19 Diary programme. This TV Programme aims to leverage the AAU TV platform to promote science engagement in Africa by strengthening collaborations among science journalists, health journalists, communicators, higher education communities, researchers, policy makers and the general public. The two episodes released are available HERE
20) Again, the AAU TV received sponsorship from Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY) to support three TV programmes, namely Diaspora~Connect, AAU Talks and Research and Development in African Universities. The Association is grateful to CCNY for this support.
21) Consortium Members (including the AAU) implementing the Demography of African Faculty Project (DAF II) announced obtaining funding to Strengthen Recruitment, Development and Retention of Faculty in the East African Community. Read More HERE (July, 2021)
22) The AAU/eLearn Africa online platform launched this year recorded a total of 56 Universities and corporate institutions sign-ups, 83 courses uploaded and 53 Professors, excluding corporate executives who are facilitating various courses on the platform.
23) The African Jobs Board project recorded impressive results as the project entered its first year of operationalization since its launch last year. The project chalked the following successes: 15,000 users visited the platform, 1,102 total jobs were posted, and 1,781 applications to the jobs posted
24) AAU’s engagement with the Private Sector was strengthened through various programmes and initiatives
25) These highlights, among several other activities and impacts made by the AAU in 2021 were achieved with the support of all our stakeholders. Together we will move the AAU and African Higher Education to the next level in the coming years.
THANK YOU ALL!
Yours in the Service of Higher Education in Africa
Professor Olusola Bandele Oyewole
SECRETARY GENERAL
AAU - The Voice of Higher Education in Africa!
