A boost for research development and postgraduate training in Africa

The African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) was launched on 10 March at the African Higher Education Summit in Dakar, Senegal.

“The primary focus of ARUA is to build indigenous research excellence with the intention of asserting Africa as a powerful global force,” said co-initiator of ARUA, Professor Adam, who is also the Vice Chancellor and Principal of the University of the Witwatersrand.

Fifteen research-strong partner universities are represented in the Alliance, with six from South Africa – the University of the Witwatersrand, University of Stellenbosch, University of Pretoria, Rhodes University, the University of Cape Town and University of KwaZulu-Natal.

“The intention is to bring together our distinctive fields of expertise to achieve complementary and co-ordinated programmes of research and training, including addressing the key development priorities of the African continent,” said Dr Max Price, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town and ARUA co-initiator.

According to Price, there are five challenges confronting African universities that ARUA will seek to address:

• The complex economic, social and development problems of the continent that cannot be addressed by institutions working in isolation
• Transnational public policy and developmental strategies
• The need to compete in the global knowledge economy, using innovation and technology to foster development, led by locally trained postgraduate students
• Opportunities for postgraduates to train at excellent universities in Africa without losing them to the global North
• The need to recognise that academic talent, state-of-the art research facilities and financial resources are all limited and cannot be duplicated at individual institutions. Moreover, it is only viable to support a limited number of globally competitive research universities on the continent.

“The Alliance can only be successful if we have the commitment and support from key stakeholders in government, the higher education sector, and local and global funding agencies,” said Prof Habib.

“Africa’s time is now – this is an opportunity for Africans to thrive and to contribute toward finding the solutions to the complex problems facing the development of our continent today, and in the future.”