Specifically, the “African Universities International Dimension Strengthening” (AUDIS) project will reinforce the management and financial administration capacity of African Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) by creating and strengthening policies and services related to international relations.
Bringing together the expertise
AUDIS can count on a strong network of twelve African and two European universities, one association of European universities and various African and European associates. The consortium’s major asset is the long networking experience and strong internationalisation expertise of its coordinator, the University of Padova in Italy, and its two European partners, the Coimbra Group and the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. The consortium will take on the challenge of boosting the international dimension of its African partners. This will be achieved through four joint sets of activities based on extensive inter-institutional networking and sharing of best academic and administrative practices between its African and European partners.
Assessing needs
The AUDIS partnership will hold an initial seminar in Senegal to identify the common issues and training needs of its African partner institutions, with a view to strengthen their capabilities in developing and planning international relations. Based on these problems and needs, proposals will be developed for African HEIs to carry out training projects to enhance their international dimension.
Some of the activities in these training projects will include improving international relations management and mobility management of students and teaching staff , recognition of diplomas and credit transfer, and fund raising. They will focus on the leading academic and administrative staff of the 12 African partner institutions, who will in turn transfer knowledge and disseminate results to their administrative services and staff.
Putting European training in African practice
Phase 2 of AUDIS will consist of training activities for the African partners’ administrative and academic authorities. The training will take place in Europe on the issues outlined in the needs assessment seminar, based on best practice and a ‘learning from errors’ approach.
In phase 3, the projects developed during the needs assessment seminar will first be launched by means of internal calls for proposals and subsequently carried out by African partner universities. Finally, AUDIS will organise a three-day seminar in Mozambique to present and discuss the action’s outcomes and to evaluate and disseminate results. In addition to AUDIS partners and associates, it will involve non-partner African HEIs, relevant ministries and international agencies. The major goal of this fi nal seminar will be to share best practices and spread the improvements to other African HEIs.
