The Pan African University has been officially launched at a ceremony held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the African Union (AU) said in a statement Thursday. The statement quoted AU Commission President Jean Ping as describing the Pan African university (PAU) as ”a big adventure” to which he was personally committed. “It is incumbent on Africa, as the cradle of humanity, to cultivate excellence and strive to take its rightful place on the world stage,” he said.

Dr. Ping said that in a global context characterised by successive crises and the consequent shrinking of the continent’s financial and human resources, the AU had met the challenge of creating Centres for African Excellence in Higher Education, “thanks to the collaboration of member states, thus reinforcing the Pan Africanist spirit and vision of Africa and its Peoples”.

He recalled that African Heads of State had taken important decisions in recent summits, aimed at speeding up the development and regional integration of the continent, leading to the increased visibility of science and technology in official discourse at the highest level.

“The creation of the African Union in 2002 was accompanied by the setting up within the Commission of eight technical departments, including the Department for Human Resources, Science and Technology, whose mission includes leading, promoting and coordinating the AU’s science and technology programmes.

'This was followed by the creation of the African Ministerial Conference of Science and Technology (AMCOST), as a forum for regular debates on the importance of science and technology in the Continent,” the Commission President said.

Dr. Ping observed that one of the major challenges to Africa’s development is the lack of highly qualified human resources, which has slowed down progress towards the achievement of the Continent’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

“The lack of adequately trained academic staff has rendered African universities globally less competitive, leading to a brain drain from the Continent. According to a 2008 ranking of world universities, only four African universities featured among the top 500… and despite the influx of students into African universities, only 6% of Africans have access to higher education, compared to a world average of 30%.

'This is regrettable, given the acknowledged correlation between the percentage of a society’s university-educated population and the society’s social and economic progress,” he said.

Recalling that the strategic vision of the Pan African University is to create institutions for excellence in science, technological innovation, social sciences, humanities and governance, which will constitute a solid foundation for higher studies and research, Dr. Ping expressed the hope that the PAU would enable Africa to take its rightful place in the global knowledge economy.

Three of the five thematic institutions launched Wednesday were the Institute for Governance, the Humanities and Social Sciences of Central Africa, based at the University of Yaoundé II, in Soa, Cameroon; The Institute for Basic Sciences, Technology and Innovation of East Africa, based at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Juja, Kenya; and The Institute for Life and Earth Sciences (including Health and Agriculture) of West Africa, based at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

Dr. Ping expressed his “immense appreciation' to five Partners – Germany, Belgium, Sweden, the European Union and India – for their concrete commitments to support the Pan- African University.

The leaders of all three institutions were presented to the AU Commission President, who urged them to lead with excellence and integrity.

Pana 15/12/2011