About Catalysing Change in African Universities (CCAU)

ACP-EU Cooperation Programme in Higher Education - Project 9ACP ROR 118 #5


Catalysing Change in African Universities (CCAU): Strengthening Leadership, Management and Cross-cutting professional skills of Eastern and Southern African Universities


Background

Higher Education is critical to economic success and long-term development of Africa, a continent facing several challenges of growth and development at several fronts. However, a number of challenges prevent universities in the continent from effectively contributing towards it’s development agenda, and overall achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Key among these are: a) limited capacity for planning and managing the institutions; b) weak physical, financial and social capital (human resource) base and development systems; c) limited competencies for resource mobilisation and management; d) limited capacities for managing research, training and outreach programmes, e) weak capacity for advocacy, networking and linking with other stakeholders; and f) limited capacity to cope with global changes and shifts in development paradigms. Repositioning African universities to respond to these challenges requires, among others, adaptive leadership and Management (L&M) structures and personnel with cross-cutting professional skills able to work in a variety of environments.

The main thrust of the action is to develop leadership, management and cross-cutting professional competencies of university managers and lecturers, and through exposure, of policy makers. This involves four action areas specifically aimed at:

Strengthening leadership and management competencies of university senior managers;

Building cross-cutting professional skills, focusing on personal mastery/soft skills (PM/SS) for postgraduate students, lecturers and junior university staff;

Identifying and piloting international good practice approaches for efficient management of university programmes; and.

Enhancing partnerships for effective networking and institutional change management .


Target Groups

The action targets mainly the university managers and lecturers. Managers include senior University managers (vice chancellors, academic registrars, university secretaries, deans) and mid-level managers such as heads of departments, research managers and representatives of academic and human resource departments. Lecturers will be drawn from various faculties.

The action also targets the graduate and undergraduate students who will mainly be involved in interactive learning sessions to provide practice for staff engaged in soft skill training. Graduate students will be included as active participants PM/SS training and action research competence development.

The final beneficiaries of this intervention include the governments, policy-decision makers, public and private research and extension organisations and the general public. The benefits are derived from innovative university managers and academic staff capable of influencing development.

Strengthening the Leadership and Management Capacities of Senior University Managers
The partners are working together to enhance the capacity of senior university managers in leading, managing and implementing the strategies for revitalization of universities in order to accelerate the visibility of universities. Training plans will be prepared for enhancing senior managers’ understanding of and capacity for leadership, management and implementation of balanced university development.

Strengthening the Personal Mastery and Soft Skills (PM/SS) of lecturers and junior university staff

Makerere university, through its Personnal Mastery and Soft Skills (PM/SS) team team, will lead the organization, implementation and follow-up of short training courses for lecturers, postgraduate students and junior university management staff. This will entail the development of learning resources, curriculum and modules to meet the PM/SS capacity needs for university leadership and management and academic staff.

Identification and Piloting of International Good Practice Approaches for Efficient and Effective management of university programmes

University of Greenwich will lead the generation, documentation and piloting of internation good practices for L&M in the region. It is hoped that this will improve the internal efficiency of the universities and ultimately their visibility in the regional and global socio-economic development arena. At least 2 universities in the region are expected to have streamlined their codes of conduct and service delivery by 2011. A design strategy and model for institutionalization of the identified and documented good management practices will be developed.


Establishment of Regional and Internal Partnerships and Knowledge Networks

All partners, Associate Partners and other higher education staeholders will togethercreate these networks to encourage peer learning, ensure following up of the training impacts, and create a climate for increased implementation and scaling up of leadership and management initiatives and reforms undertaken. Formal partnerships will be developed through MoUs while e-platforms will be designed for learning, sharing and social networking. A variety of knowledge and communication products will also be developed. Both regional and international partnerships will be initiated for dialogue and as platforms for advancement of leadership, management and professional excellence.


Project Coordinator

Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) – Kampala


Partners

Makerere University – Uganda
University of Malawi – Malawi
Sokoine University of Agriculture – Tanzania
University of Greenwich – UK

Associate Partners

Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA)
Association of African Universities (AAU)
Inter-University Council of East Africa (IUCEA)
Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation - (CTA)

Project Duration: 36 Months


Funding
EU Co-funding: EUR 487,290

Total Budget: EUR 573,280


Contact

Prof. Adipala Ekwamu
Regional Co-ordinator
Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM),
Tel: +256 414535939
Fax: +256 414543153

E-mail: secretariat@ruforum.org;