About the Project

Background to the Project

Since the advent of independence and majority rule in Africa in the 1960s, African higher education institutions have expressed their need for major transformation from their colonial past and, at the same time, have sought expanded international cooperation. After many years of turbulence during the Cold War years and following, African universities, colleges, technical institutes and technikons, and other tertiary institutions have been entering into partnerships with higher education institutions throughout the world.

In the past decade, U.S. higher education institutions also have understood their need to link more proactively with partners abroad in order to build a more international experience for their students, to learn from the research and knowledge of their African colleagues, and to establish a foundation for their own global knowledge and the expertise for their faculty.

This effort is a part of the MSU African Higher Education Partnership Initiative that seeks to support African universities and other higher education institutions in a variety of projects. Read more at africa.msu.edu/AHEPI.html.

History of the Project

This project has been initiated in 2002 by the Association of African Universities, the African Studies Association, and the African Studies Center at Michigan State University. The latter coordinates the site.

Since its inception in 2000, this project has undergone continual revision. New institutions and their contact information have been added and out-of-date information deleted. Efforts at gaining information from the institutions themselves and other relevant sources have been exhaustive, although response has been minimal. However, as new information is received, it will be posted on the website.

Purpose of the Project

This website is designed to support higher education in Africa and all the faculty, administrators, and foreign partners working to sustain and renew it. It seeks to make African tertiary institutions more readily accessible to their African partners and others seeking to link or partner with them.  There are links here to many African universities, colleges, and other higher education organizations, associations, and relevant non-governmental organizations, as well as numerous research and policy documents.

This Africa Higher Education Website Project has four main goals:

• to share information about existing higher education institutions and their faculties,
• to provide the user with website, email, and address information in order to contact African tertiary institutions and their organizations and associations,
• to offer access to a wide range of documents, papers, publications, and studies about African tertiary institutions,
• to promote successful and mutually beneficial partnerships by proposing guidelines for and fostering best practices in international partnerships.

Send Additions and Corrections

We welcome new and missing information and additions to this website.

Send an e-mail message to: africa@msu.edu.

Support for the Project

We are grateful for funding for this project from the Rockefeller Foundation as part of its commitment to support African universities and their partnerships abroad. The grant is being administered by the African Studies Association, and major staff time and funding for the project are being provided by Michigan State University through its African Studies Center.