2023 Afretec Conference celebrates collaboration
- Wits University
Higher education leaders from across the continent recently convened for the second Pan-African network's annual conference in Nairobi, Kenya.
At the 2023 Conference, the African Engineering and Technology Network (Afretec) underscored the importance of harnessing cross-country and cross-institution collaboration to cultivate a diverse partnership to drive teaching and learning, knowledge creation, and entrepreneurship on the Continent.
“Faced with a myriad of challenges, Africa needs to seize its abundance of skills and expertise to create tangible, transformative impact. The strength of African-led research and innovation lies in the power of collaboration, and the Afretec network unites the continent’s brilliant minds and talents to effect real-world change,” says Professor Ruksana Osman, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic at Wits University, an Afretec member university.
Afretec is a pan-African collaboration of technology-focused universities, working together to drive the inclusive digital growth of Africa. Its members include Carnegie Mellon University Africa, the American University in Cairo, University of Lagos, University of Nairobi, University of Rwanda, and University of the Witwatersrand. Afretec is working in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation.
Over the past year, Afretec members have joined together and led a number of activities including student bridge programs and faculty enrichment programs. Afretec also recently awarded $3.3M to fund 11 grants, each led by a multi-university research team, to build research capacity and work toward achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals in Africa.
The rapid growth of Africa presents unique opportunities, and it is paramount that member universities work together to retain talent on the continent and to develop the next generation of skilled educators, researchers, engineers and technologists,” says Osman
More about Afretec
Afretec’s pillar of knowledge creation recently announced three research clusters of health, energy and sustainability, and environment. The network’s teaching and learning pillar launched a series of studies on teaching resources and best practices in Africa. Under the entrepreneurship pillar, programs were initiated to build the pipeline of entrepreneurship at partner universities.