Professor Tawana Kupe, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria (UP), was unanimously elected Chairperson for Africa at the Annual General Meeting of the Australia-Africa Universities Network (AAUN). The meeting was hosted by the University of Mauritius recently.

Prof Tawana Kupe was elected Chairperson for Africa at the Annual General Meeting of the Australia-Africa Universities Network

The AAUN was established in 2012, co-chaired by Professor John Hearn, University of Sydney, Australia, and Professor Cheryl de la Rey, former UP Vice-Chancellor. The AAUN focuses on the engagement of Australian universities in sub-Saharan Africa, to enable the provision of specific expertise across areas of priority for Australia and Africa. It is integral in enabling Australia and Africa to work together creatively and innovatively to find new solutions to long-standing challenges.

The Africa wing currently comprises 12 member universities: UP (South Africa); Makerere University (Uganda); University of Cape Town (South Africa); Tshwane University of Technology (South Africa); University of Ghana; University of Mauritius; University of Malawi; University of Zambia; University of Nairobi (Kenya); University of Botswana; Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia); and University of Ibadan (Nigeria). 

There are also 12 member universities in Australia.

Prof Kupe committed himself and UP to enhance scholarship and build capacity in and for Africa in collaboration with the world.

“Science and scholarship are without borders,” he said.

University of Pretoria Vice-Chancellor and Principal Prof Tawana Kupe at the University of Mauritius

He also extended an invitation to the AAUN to host the 2020 conference at UP’s Future Africa Institute. He stressed that Future Africa’s purpose was to serve the continent through multi- and transdisciplinary science and scholarship, as well as build capacity that is Africa-based and owned, but globally enabled.