Invitation to AAU Member Universities to respond to a Higher Education Data Mapping Exercise

The Association of African Universities invites all its members and higher education stakeholders to contribute to a questionnaire on existing Higher Education data sources in Africa. This work is being done in the context of HAQAA2, an initiative funded by the European Union as part of the Africa-EU Strategic Partnership, which supports harmonization in the higher education sector in Africa and the African Union’s Continental Strategy for Education (CESA). The initiative is funding a mapping exercise of higher education data sources and approaches in Africa, which will contribute towards the eventual development of a coherent process for data collection across the continent, driven by regional and an African central Policy Data Units (PDU).

The link to the short survey is availed here for the prompt action of stakeholders: https://forms.gle/MbTSxGS2FVzwfLFXA

The PDU Development Team, consisting of experts including those nominated by important regional university associations, is currently undertaking this mapping of existing Higher Education data sources, projects and initiatives related to HE – their drivers, approaches, caveats, opportunities and data collection capacity needs at different levels.

Your participation in this exercise will be a valuable addition to this study and will be used to compliment the desk research already being finalized and provide expert opinion to enrich the study. In particular, the team would like you to share from your experience:

• how data is collected, perceived, and used by different institutions and policy bodies;
• if there are major gaps and opportunities and if there are additional actors that need to be included in the report, and
• To assess how the data is built, its consistency and its relevance in the regions you represent.

Yours in the service of higher education in Africa

Professor Olusola Oyewole

Secretary General, Association of African Universities