EA universities boast ‘centres of excellence

From MARC NKWAME in Arusha

HIGHER learning institutions in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania are among ten universities chosen to host African centres of excellence earmarked for future outstanding academic outputs.

Centres of excellence would also produce materials that could be sources of income amounting to 67 billion/-. Prof Jude Ssebuwufu from the Uganda Martyrs University says in his paper on the ‘Role of Centres of Excellence Initiatives in Industrialisation,’ during the recent 6th forum on Academia, Public Private Partnership for East Africa in Nairobi, that the selection was based on proposals whose focus was aimed at addressing specific development objectives.
“The Centres of Excellence are meant to deal with development goals mapped out within different sectors including Health; Education; Industry; Agriculture; Oil and Gas explorations – as well as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Information Communication Technology (ICT) and applied statistics,” he revealed.
The African Centres of Excellence will play roles in developing high quality curricula; enrolment of more than3,500 graduate students in the regional development priority areas ensuring that more than 700 of the students will be PhDs holders.
More than 1,000 would be female students and the institutions would ensure the publication of over 1,500 research articles in highimpact journals. Between them, the ACEs would also launch some 300 partnerships with the productive sector, research institutions and civil society to harness real development and generate more than 30m US Dollars (67 billion/-) in external revenue.
Centres of excellence in East Africa include the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology in Bondo, Kenya, which deals with Sustainable Use of Insects as Food and Feeds; and the University of Rwanda’s College of Education, which hosts the Centre of Excellence in ‘Internet of Things.’
Others are the Arusha-based Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology which hosts the Water Infrastructure and Sustainable Energy Centre for the Future; and the Uganda Martyrs University, which has the African Centre for Agro-Ecology and Livelihood Systems. Also in Uganda the Makerere University is hosting the Centre of Materials, Product Development and Nanotechnology as well as the Centre for Crop Improvement and the Mbarara University of Science and Technology handling Pharm- Biotechnology and Traditional Medicine Centre.
Ethiopia has the African Railway Education and Research Institute at Addis Ababa University; while Malawi has the African Centre of Excellence for Aquaculture and Fisheries Science at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Mozambique runs the Centre of Studies in Oil and Gas Engineering and Technology at the Universidad Eduardo Mondlane, while Zambia’s Copperbelt University has the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Mining