Stellenbosch University (SU) reaffirmed its commitment to research and postgraduate training in Africa by co-founding the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) along with 14 other research-driven universities from eight African countries.
The launch took place in March in Dakar, Senegal at the African Higher Education Summit, and was attended by representatives of the partner institutions involved as well as Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, chair of the African Union. Prof Wim De Villiers, Rector and Vice-chancellor of SU, was also at the lauch of ARUA.
ARUA strives to improve training and support for doctoral students, to build capacity for research management and to promote cooperation between universities with regard to research.
Other higher education institutions that form part of ARUA are the universities of Lagos, Ibadan and Obafemi Awolowo (Nigeria), the University of Ghana, the University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), the University of the Witwatersrand, Cape Town, KwaZulu-Natal, Pretoria and Rhodes (South Africa), the University of Nairobi (Kenya), the University of Rwanda, the Cheikh Anta Diop University (Senegal) and Makerere University (Uganda).
Dr Max Price, Vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town and first rotating chair of ARUA, said: "The intention is to bring together our distinctive fields of expertise to achieve complementary and coordinated programmes of research and training, including addressing the key development priorities of the African continent."
"As a group our focus will be on expanding research excellence in Africa as an important prerequisite so that the continent may determine and control its own destiny," said Prof Wim De Villiers, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of SU.
Dr Christoff Pauw, co-director of the African Doctoral Academy (ADA) at SU, said that ARUA is a timely and welcome addition to higher education in Africa, and added that "one of the contributions that the University can make to ARUA is to offer ADA training programmes to prospective and current doctoral students of partner institutions."
Stellenbosch University is also taking part in several Africa consortiums through which important research themes connected to the African developmental context will be investigated. The most important and most active of these are PeriPeri U, AIMS, PANGeA, TRECCAfrica and the NEPAD initiatives for water and bio-energy. The reasearch fields of these consortiums vary from disaster risk mitigation to sustainable development.
The African Doctoral Academy serves to coordinate and strengthen excellence in doctoral education at SU. This is achieved by harnessing local and international expertise on doctoral reasearch to provide doctoral support at SU together with partners elsewhere in South Africa, Africa and the rest of the world.
- Read more on these and many other Afrocentric initiatives at www.sun.ac.za/international.
Supplementary source: University World News
