The University of Pretoria (UP) Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Tawana Kupe has been appointed to the governing board of the Association of African Universities (AAU).

Prof Kupe’s appointment to the 17-member board took place during the AAU’s extraordinary General Conference, which was hosted virtually.

The AAU is an international non-profit, non-governmental organisation that was created in 1967 by African universities to promote cooperation among them, and between them and the international academic community.

The organisation – which is headquartered in Accra, Ghana, and has a membership of more than 400 higher education institutions – aims to improve the quality of African higher education, and to strengthen its contribution to Africa's development by supporting the core functions of higher education institutions and facilitating critical reflection and consensus building on issues affecting higher education.

In his submission to the AAU’s elections bureau, Prof Kupe highlighted that his vision for the AAU can be split into four main areas: working to create a favourable policy environment; strengthening the institutional capacity of stakeholders; resource mobilisation for sustainability; and promoting harmonisation and standardisation for competitiveness.

On the fourth point, Prof Kupe said the following: “Promoting harmonisation and standardisation for competitiveness is critically important as we align and collaborate with African institutions and networks, with further enhancements provided by ARUA [the African Research Universities Alliance], RUFORUM [Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture] and other similar university networks. UP is currently leading the Carnegie Corporation of New York-supported ARUA data study and benchmarking exercise for master’s- and doctoral-level education across the continent.”

The composition of the new governing board that Prof Kupe is joining is a reflection regional representation, gender balance and the profile of the different members of the association according to the AAU bylaws. The board will assume office immediately, and is led by Prof Saeed Bakri Osman, President of Sudan International University. He has the key mandate of implementing the decisions made by the AAU General Conference, the supreme authority of the association responsible for determining its general policies and direction.

“It is my hope that the AAU will consider my vision for the association as beneficial in advancing its strategic objectives and providing solutions to the development challenges facing our continent,” Prof Kupe said.