The phase one of the Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence initiative, being sponsored by the World Bank to the tune of US$158m, is expected to kick off in the third week of November when the identities of universities that have been selected to host the centres will be made public.
Short-listing of proposals from applicants was completed at the end of October, when a panel tasked with selecting the beneficiary institutions was supposed to complete the task and forward the list to the World Bank for final approval.
The project, which the bank is undertaking in partnership with the Association of African Universities, has attracted some 31 applications from participating countries, for up to 15 centres of excellence that the bank has pledged to fund under the initiative.
The panel has been meeting in Dakar, capital of Senegal, and sifting through the proposals, among which 27 made the short-list.
“The short-list is ready and beginning the final week of October the names of successful applicants will be forwarded to the World Bank, which will make known approved centres before the end of November,” said Professor Jonathan Mba, the AAU’s director of research and academic planning, who led the evaluation panel.
The evaluation process involved visiting and inspecting physical facilities in interested universities, as well as intensive analysis of the proposals, seeking to evaluate the viability of potential centres and the capacity of institutions to implement their ideas.
“We have received good and exciting proposals from participating countries and we are sure that those proposed centres that will qualify will make an impact in the development of science, technology, engineering and mathematics in Africa,” Mba added.
The Africa Higher Education Centres of Excellence, or ACE, project will first be implemented in West and Central Africa with universities in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal and Togo eligible to participate.
Source: universityworldnews.com
