Africa-Europe event on higher education collaboration

25 October 2019. Africa-Europe event on higher education collaboration

• More detailed sector-specific recommendations from the thematic workshops will be made available on the conference website in a few weeks time.
• Download: Key Conference Facts (PDF, 201.94 KB)

The web-streamed conference opening and closing session are still accessible here :

• To the web-stream of the opening session
• To the web-stream of the closing session

Investing in skills and the young generation is key for sustainable social and economic development. Africa and Europe have been working together to develop high quality and inclusive higher education systems, exchange experience in matching skills with the demands of the labour market and to support collaboration, mobility and exchange between students and scientists within and between the African continent and Europe.

Jointly organised by the European Commission, the African Union Commission and four higher education stakeholder organisations of EU member states – the German Academic Exchange Service, British Council, Campus France and Nuffic – this high-level conference highlighted the importance of collaboration in higher education between the two continents.

The event seeked synergies between ongoing initiatives on European and African level. The conference addressed the following themes

• Higher Education Institutions as job generators – matching skills with labour market requirements
• Supporting refugees’ and IDP’s access to higher education
• Capacity building and curriculum development through international partnerships and innovations
• Quality assurance and relevance of study programmes
• Building skills and capacity in the next generation of university staff
• Workshop: The role of higher and vocational education and training in developing knowledge and skills – the case of agri-food transformation

Speakers at the agri-food transformation workshop:

• Prof. Daniel Sila, Associate Professor, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
• Marianne van Dorp, Manager Business Development, Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation, Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands
• Hashi Abdullahi, Senior Policy Coordinator, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherlands
• Prof.dr.ir. Enoch G. Achigan Dako, Programme Coordinator, ‘’Enhancing training and research mobility for novel crops breeding in Africa’’ (MoBreed), Benin
• Valérie Baduel, Deputy Director General for Higher Education and Research, Ministry of Agriculture and Food, France
• Mervin Bakker, Director, Nuffic South Africa (Chair)
• Armand Gaikema, Country Programme Manager, Nuffic (Rapporteur)

Related:

8TH CONFERENCE "UNIVERSITIES, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA" (19 TO 20 FEBRUARY 2020)
This conference aims to increase knowledge transfer between the private sector and academia especially regarding entrepreneurship in Africa, the support of African and German SMEs in Africa, as well as the formation and acquisition of qualified personnel.