June 13, 2001
African governments were on Monday urged to facilitate the role of the universities as "vehicles for socio-economic development," by committing more resources for their research work to enable them to find solutions to problems facing the continent.
This has become imperative, in view of the fact that a recent study conducted by the World Bank and other institutions, recognised the role institutions of higher learning could play in boosting the economies of developing countries.
The President of the Association of African Universities (AAU), Professor George Eshiwani, made the call at the opening of the 57th Executive Board Meeting of the association at Elmina. The three-day meeting, among other things, is to deliberate on how best the association could assist in the fight against HIV/AIDS and the development of information and communication technology at the various member universities.
The AAU President expressed regret that in spite of the findings of that study, African universities continue to have little resources allocated to them for research work, compared to their counterparts in developed countries.
Prof Eshiwani, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of the Kenyatta University, in Kenya, therefore, stressed the need for African governments to pay serious attention to education and to "invest heavily" in it, to enable the youth as future leaders to find solutions to the socio-economic challenges such as those posed by diseases like HIV/AIDS and famine and conflicts.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, the Reverend Professor Samuel Adjepong, urged the AAU to initiate a "bench-marked agenda" to enable the universities among other things, play their role in accelerating the socio-economic development of the continent effectively.
He said stressed that against the backdrop of dwindling resources for operations at public universities, it was essential to strengthen the AAU and foster closer and stronger partnerships among member institutions.
