Conference on funding higher education ends
AN international conference on innovative approaches to funding higher education and research in Africa has ended in Lome, Togo with a call on member countries to find unconventional ways of funding tertiary educational institutions.
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Professor Etienne Ehouon Ehile, Secretary General of the Association of African Universities (AAU), who made the call, said with the current high demand for tertiary education, African states alone could not fully fund higher education and research.
“It is, therefore, necessary to develop new strategies to mobilise financial resources that would contribute to the empowerment of African universities,” he added.
This, according to Prof. Ehile, would not only improve the level of quality higher education for students but also transfer the socio-economic needs for improving the entrepreneurial capacity for both the local and international job markets.
The three-day meeting was hosted by the Togolese government and sponsored by UNESCO, the AAU, the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA ) and the African and Malagasy Council on Higher Education (CAMES).
About 100 delegates from Africa and its development partners attended the conference.
Ghana’s 20-member delegation was led by Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, a Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Tertiary Education.
Artheme Seleagodji Ahoomey-Zunu, Prime Minister of Togo, who opened the conference, said there should be a process that would develop a common strategy to help improve the capacity of experts in member countries to work for the achievement of the needed innovations.
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The Togolese Minister of Higher Education and Research called for new ideas to be injected into the higher educational system to bring out products that would easily fit into the global market.
Among other things, the conference aimed at developing a synergy regarding the implementation of activities to support countries and universities with the support of partner organisations in order to deal with various challenges.