Well said JM.
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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of John Mbaku
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2014 3:03 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Cc: MI Idris
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - New university to be Africa's 'rival to Harvard'
Why does the university have to rival Harvard and Yale. The two American universities have their individual missions and so should a university in Africa. Harvard or Yale, for example, can afford to train people in Western philosophy, while a university in Africa might serve the continent (I hope that is what an African university is supposed to do) by emphasizing training in agriculture, technology, culture, environmental law, ecosystem management, water law, African languages, nursing and the health sciences, etc.--issues that are of critical importance to poverty alleviation, integration, and human development.
On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 11:53 AM, Okey Iheduru <okeyiheduru@gmail.com> wrote:
New university to be Africa's 'rival to Harvard'
by Andiswa Maqutu, August 18 2014, 07:53
New university to be Africa's 'rival to Harvard'
by Andiswa Maqutu, August 18 2014, 07:53
Kindle
Picture: THINKSTOCK
HIGH school graduates in South Africa and the rest of the continent will soon have an additional university choice as a network of 25 pan-African universities, aimed to rival the likes of Harvard and Yale, is due to come on stream.
The first campus will open in Mauritius next year, says Fred Swaniker, co-founder of the Joburg-based African Leadership Academy (ALA), a high school that takes in talented but deprived students from across the continent. About 15% of pupils at ALA are from South Africa.
Mr Swaniker is also the founder of African Leadership Unleashed (ALU), a network of universities that aims to produce the future leaders required on the continent.
Equity Bank Kenya is supporting the next campus to be set up in Kenya, with other campuses due in Nigeria and Morocco.
Coca-cola, IBM, Boston Consulting Group and Standard Chartered Bank, among other companies, have partnered with ALU to fund the students who will attend the university in Mauritius.
Lack of funding in South Africa
ALU is looking to broaden the success of ALA, where more than 80% of graduates go on to study at universities overseas such as Harvard, Yale and Duke. Mr Swaniker said most students at ALA had to go to universities abroad due to a lack of funding for foreign students' tertiary studies within South Africa.
A talented student from the Democratic Republic of Congo was more likely to get a scholarship from Harvard or Yale universities than the University of Cape Town or Wits, Mr Swaniker said.
Each ALU university, which costs about $100m to start up, will be technology-focused with students taught via hi-tech e-learning material and peer-to-peer interaction. This would cut down the need for faculty staff, who could be very costly, Mr Swaniker said.
The model for the institution is being piloted in South Africa at ALA with students from all over the continent. "We want to completely reinvent what universities look like. Building universities on the old model, with expensive faculty, will take too long," Mr Swaniker said.
Simon Lebus, CEO of Cambridge Assessments, a part of Cambridge University, said the ALU e-learning model was a "fantastic way of democratising learning", but some subjects may be more suited to this model than others.
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| Investor441 day ago Africa needs to train their young people in Maths, science and Computer Technology and become a knowledge and technology based continental economic powerhouse. |
| stalinjoe1 day ago So the aspiring rival to Harvard et al. will be skimping on staff because they cost too much? Sounds like intellectual parasitism to me. I'll re-evaluate my extreme scepticism when ALU produces its first Physics or Chemistry Nobel laureates. |
| FreedomRobbers1 day ago these Ivy league universities was once only for the rich and elite. the old boys clubs that looked after these. in the beginning these added up too about 3000 students annually. today the numbers are gigantic and the benefit of these qualifications are significantly down graded in todays. world. in fact it amazes me how "small minds" in Africa cannot keep up with the trend. today the ivy league univ. and others you can get a degree for a few hundred dollars over the internet. so education has become cheaper thanks to internet and the common man has access to it. |
| PhilaniLubanyanainUmlazi1 day ago "In 1940, the Office of Public Opinion Research in the USA conducted a nationwide poll and asked Americans to indicate those words that seemed to describe best the people of Central and South America. The results were the following: When asked whether people in Central and South America were dark-skinned, 80% said yes. When asked whether they were quick tempered and emotional, about 50% said yes. Asked whether people in these areas were intelligent, only 15% said yes; and if they were honest, only 13% said yes. Asked whether they were imaginative, 23% said yes; and whether people in Central and South America were efficient only 5% said yes. (Thomas E. Skidmore & Peter H. Smith, Modern Latin America, page 4, Published 1984, 1989 by Oxford University Press.) The stereotype about the Central and South American people according to this survey was that they are dark-skinned, quick-tempered, emotional, unimaginative, unintelligent, dishonest and inefficient. If the same survey about Africa today was conducted in some countries of the North, I would not be surprised if we got exactly the same outcome. The critical matter however is that we have a duty to define ourselves" Dr Thabo Mbeki. Defining ourselves it means we must built more centres of knowledge on our continent. Philani Lubanyana@Umlazi |
| PhilaniLubanyanainUmlazi1 day ago "A university such as this one(Glasgow Caledonian University) , is like a torch that illuminates the dark corners of our existence that we always strive to discover, so that humanity can understand itself better. As humanity grapples with the myriad of challenges of ensuring that our common habitat, the Earth, is indeed a humane place for all, we always see the role of centres of excellence such as the Glasgow Caledonian University as light keepers that assist us to clear the mists as we navigate through our chosen paths" Dr Thabo Mbeki. We need more light keepers (centres of knowledge/universities) so that we can fight neo-colonialism, poverty, racisms, conflicts, corruption and maladministration on our continent of Africa. Philani Lubanyana@Umlazi |
| JoeVoter1 day ago Will the universities also take talented but "undeprived" students as well ? If it's all e-learning why does it have to be in Mauritius or anywhere for that matter? Will they use IBM computers and advertise Coke on their teashirts? If they are all concentrating on their screens which substitute for faculty will they interact with each other? Will they stay in Africa or will they be enticed to better paid jobs elsewhere? What is the financial model of the backing organisation? Can we buy the shares on a stock exchange somewhere? |
| jludike1 day ago challenge will be for leading employers to accept graduates, from these Academies as standards of accreditation /qualification's particularly in science, engineering, technology and mathematics will require ime and credible faculty tto be established. |
| Charleston14 hours ago South Africans will need to read once they get there. Good luck--again separating the semi-intelligent to the under-educated |
--
Okey Iheduru, PhD
You can access some of my papers on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) at: http://ssrn.com/author=2131462.
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JOHN MUKUM MBAKU, ESQ.
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