African governments have launched a new university meant to train high-level professionals for development and to conduct research.
Launched in Addis Ababa by the African Union, Pan-African University (PAU) is a specialised postgraduate training and research institution comprising a network of universities in five regions of the continent.

It is modelled to create centres of excellence under specific thematic areas, with each geographical sub-region of Africa hosting a thematic component and serving as a co-ordinating hub for similar programmes in the continent.

Existing facilities in the five host universities will be used as satellites campuses.

Funding for the satellite campuses will be mobilised through a partnership, one-third funded by the host country, one-third by the AU mainly in the form of fellowships and another third by a lead partner to be identified in each region.

Space sciences

The five thematic areas and the regional hubs of PAU include space sciences, to be hosted by an institution in Southern Africa; water and energy sciences, including climate change, to be hosted by an institution in North Africa from Algeria; basic sciences, technology and innovation for Eastern Africa, to be hosted by Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya.

Best practice

The selected institutes will act as regional hubs and network with a number of satellite institutions and build capacity in their selected disciplines throughout the continent.

This will be done by transferring best practice in teaching methods, course design, research methods from the ‘hubs’ to the satellite institutions and vice versa.

“The programmes (of PAU) should be geared towards promoting mobility of students, lecturers, researchers and administrative staff between African universities.

This arrangement will work towards improving teaching, leadership and collaborative research,” said Professor Sam Ongeri the Chairman of Conference of Ministers of Education of the African Union, or COMEDAF said during the official launch of PAU.

Prof Ongeri added that despite tremendous efforts to improve the quality of higher education, the continent continues to suffer the loss of its intellectuals and professionals through brain drain.

PAU is expected to produce an adequate supply of highly qualified Africans able to innovate in order to address the challenges facing the development of the African continent and improve the retention of skilled African professional human resources.

PAU‘s first intake is scheduled for October next year with 100 scholarships for students from the different regions that will cover all expenses.

Resource persons

“There will be a very rigorous selection (of the candidates for scholarships) based on their academic performance… We want people who will excel beyond the average as we are looking for super performers who will become the resource persons for this continent.” Professor Ongeri said.

PAU also includes life and earth Sciences including health and agriculture that will be based in Western Africa hosted by the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and governance, humanities and social sciences for Central Africa that will be hosted by the University of Yaoundé in Cameroon.