The Association of African Universities (AAU), has signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding with the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), to build synergies and amplify the contribution of the higher education sectors to advance STEM education in Africa and North America.
According to AAUs Secretary-General, Prof. Olusola Oyewole, this collaboration will have a wider and far-reaching impact on faculty, students, networks, and broadly higher education institutions in both Africa and North America.
Over the next five years, AAU and ASEE will work together on academic mobility, commissioned joint research, staff and institutional capacity building, resource mobilization, and infrastructural development. The partners will jointly undertake various research projects and disseminate educational information and scientific research findings through workshops, conferences, seminars, multimedia channels, and other dissemination avenues on mutually agreed terms, as well as develop mutually acceptable proposals for the benefit of their stakeholders on both continents.
Additionally, given the number of partnerships the AAU has brokered with institutions of higher learning in North America, the parties agreed to establish the AAU North American Office at ASEE which will focus specifically on serving the interest of the AAU in the pursuit of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
Expressing his excitement about the agreement, Dr. Norman L. Fortenberry, Executive Director of ASEE noted that the signing of the agreement marks a great day in which the mutual interests of the two organizations have aligned to create an opportunity to advance collaboration and interactions for the mutual benefit of North American and African faculty, students, and staff in STEM disciplines.
Photo courtesy / ASEE
Article by Jedidah Mwangi
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