Invitation to Participate – HEFAALA Symposium & 20th International Conference on Private Higher Education in Africa | 27 – 28 April, 2022
April 22, 2022
Strengthening Quality Assurance in Higher and Tertiary Education – The Association of African Universities builds capacity of African Higher Education institutions in Online Teaching and Learning in the post COVID-Era
May 12, 2022
The Secretary General of the Association of African Universities (AAU) on behalf of the Governing Board and African Universities, expresses the profound shock of the AAU at the passing of Dr. Rispa Odongo, on Saturday, April 20th, 2022.
Dr. Rispa Odongo was the Chairperson of the Technical Working Group (TWG) for the development of the African Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in higher education (ASG-QA), which is one of the tools developed under the Harmonization of African Higher Education Quality Assurance and Accreditation (HAQAA) Initiative, a Pan African Quality Assurance and Accreditation System (PAQAF). The Association of African Universities, is one of the partners of the HAQAA initiative and worked closely with her under this initiative.
In March 2019, she facilitated a workshop organized by the AAU in collaboration with the African Quality Assurance Network (AfriQAN) on Good Practices in quality assurance in higher education, to enlighten Quality Assurance (QA) agencies and HEIs on current developments in QA . This was hosted at the University of Nairobi, Kenya.
Dr. Rispa Odongo worked for the Commission for University Education (CUE), Kenya from 1993 to 2016 and was the Head of Department of Curriculum (Programme Accreditation) between 2004 and 2013. Following her retirement from the CUE in 2016 after 23 years of service, she served in a number of regional and international positions offering expertise in Quality Assurance. She also worked and consulted for various institutions (on higher education related assignments), including UNESCO and the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA).
She earned a Doctorate of Education in Higher Education Leadership from Walden University, USA, a Postgraduate Certificate in Quality Assurance from the University of Melbourne, Australia, a Master of Science in Animal Production and Health from the University of Edinburgh (U.K) and a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Nairobi (Kenya).
Dr. Rispa Odongo was a mentor to many people, and made impacts nationally, regionally and globally. Africa has indeed lost a distinguished daughter. Our condolences go out to her family, country and the entire African Higher Education fraternity.
