Pan African university to open its doors

Officially launched in 2011, the Pan African University is set to revolutionize Africa’s Higher education space. The university aims at shaping African minds to produce home-grown solutions to the challenges the continent is grappling with.  Low access to higher education among Africans served as the catalyst for the establishment of the university. The inadequate responsiveness of African higher education to the continent’s vision also contributed to the establishment of the University. Professor Jean – Pierre Ezin, AU Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology gave a briefing yesterday in connection with the university and other issues. The commissioner said the Pan African University will begin enrolling students in September.

Pan African University will have institutes hosted in different universities across the continent. It will allocate different thematic areas in those universities.  Professor Ezin also gave updates on the Kwame Nkrumah Scientific Awards which was launched in 2010. He said the AU will give out awards to excelling African scientists in January here in Addis Ababa. Since its launch, the commission has given out a total of 49 awards to African scientists. 26 of those were awarded at the national, 17 at regional level and 6 at continental level. (AFRO FM)