EAC varsities urged to develop innovative products, policies

The executive secretary of the Inter-University Council for East Africa, Prof. Alexandre Lyambabaje, called on universities to actively get involved with development of innovative products and policies. Prof. Lyambabaje was addressing a meeting of Vice-Chancellors, Deputy Vice-Chancellors and heads of commissions/councils for Higher Education and members of East African Higher Education Quality Assurance Network (EAQAN). The meeting, which was a culmination of the EAQAN Forum, was also attended by participants from Ghana, Ivory Coast and Somalia to learn from East African countries on the development of quality assurance systems in universities. Both events took place in Entebbe, Uganda Prof. Lyambabaje highlighted the priority areas of the Inter-University Council. These include promoting and encouraging research within higher learning institutions. He, however, expressed that in some cases, it has been realised that some universities consider the end result of their work as publications which go with promotion of staff instead of innovation and products as end results. He urged universities to view publishing in a different aspect and to move to the stage of developing innovative products and policies which will contribute to the development of socio-economic transformation in the East African region. On efforts being made in the development of quality assurance systems in East African varsities, Lyambabaje, emphasised the importance of communicating quality assurance matters in a user friendly language to enable its articulation and understanding by diverse stakeholders. He stressed that making quality assurance issues in higher education understood by stakeholders, contributes to attracting more support and realisation of the objectives of interventions which results in more funding from governments, partners and other stakeholders. “We need also to assess how effectively the developed tools in quality assurance are used in our institutions,” he said. He cited an example of the current trend where many parents in the East African region are sending their children to study in universities outside East Africa. According to Prof. Lyambabaje, there must be a reason why parents are doing so. He called on universities to create confidence in parents and develop higher learning institutions to enable them to retain students. In addition, Prof Lyambabaje sees the need for streamlining administration so that university teaching staff and professors feel valued. On preparation for pre-university students Prof. Lyambabaje compared secondary school leavers to industrial raw materials that need proper preparation. In his remarks to the conference, Prof. Opuda-Asibo John, the executive director, National Council for Higher Education, Uganda, urged quality assurance committees in varsities to promote academic freedom and research, while building staff capacity. Prof. Opuda observed the need for senior professors to support young university staff to grow in their fields. Memorandum signed Dr Helmut Blumbach, the German academic exchange service director, regional office for Africa, said the body and IUCEA would sign a Memorandum of Understanding. This would facilitate strengthening partnership and collaboration between East Africa and German industries and universities in curriculum development, training and applied research and internationalization of higher education. Indeed at the end of the meeting, Dr Helmut Blumbach and Prof. Lyambabaje signed that Memorandum of Understanding for collaboration in the next five years. The meeting was organised by IUCEA in collaboration with the National Council for Higher Education, (NCHE), Uganda, the Germany Academic Exchange Service and the Germany Rectors’ Conference. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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EAC varsities urged to develop innovative products, policies