STATEMENT

In the framework of the Africa-EU Strategy, the European Commission, the African Union Commission and the Association of African Universities organised the "Exploring Quality Assurance through the Africa-EU Partnership" Conference in Libreville, Gabon on 31 May and 1 June, 2013.

The Joint Africa-EU Strategy emphasizes the importance of cooperationwith Africa in higher education to build capacity through networking, mobility, institutional support and innovation.

The participants in the conference in Gabondiscussed:

  • the impact of massification on the quality provision of higher education;
  • the roles and responsibilities of national authorities, national agencies and regional associations in fostering a quality culture in African higher education;
  • the possibility of charging a regional network like AfriQAN with the development of African Standards and Guidelines for quality assurance, in collaboration with other stakeholder associations representing higher education institutions and students;
  • the relationship between governmental policy, institutional autonomy, accountability and quality assurance;
  • the need for a revised African Quality Rating Mechanism to complement quality assurance initiatives;
  • the development of a continental accreditation agency for higher education in Africa;
  • capacity building and the development of national quality assurance agencies and quality assurance units in higher education institutions;
  • current and ongoingnational and regional initiatives in Africa, such as the introduction of the three cycle system in Francophone countries;
  • European developments in quality assurance, particularly in the framework of the Bologna Process, and how this experience can be made to benefit African counterparts;
  • the positive outcomes of the Europe-Africa Quality Connect and the African Higher Education Harmonisation and Tuning Pilot Initiative, with a view to encouraging their further development.

From the discussions, the following issueswere distilled and agreed as areas that may receive further attention through future initiatives in the framework of the Africa-EU Partnership:

  1. Promoting a common understanding and a common language on the topic of quality assurance in higher education, and promoting agreement on the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders in it.
  2. Harmonisation of higher education, the definition of a pan-African framework for quality and qualifications and the development of a continental agency for accreditation, building on experience from regional initiatives and projects such as the African Higher Education Harmonisation and Tuning Pilot Initiative.
  3. The design, establishment and maintenance of an information platform on quality assurance, covering good practice, initiatives, tools, monitoring guidelines and experts.
  4. Support to the establishment of national quality assurance agencies and strengthening existingones.
  5. The development of a quality assurance culture in higher education institutions.
  6. Mainstreaming the involvement of all higher education stakeholders in quality assurance initiatives and processes at all levels.
  7. The development of standards and guidelineson quality assurance in Africa, as a collective effort of all stakeholders in higher education.

The conference recognises that in many of these areas activities have already been developed or are under development by a variety of national, regional and pan-African entities. Any further cooperation and capacity building activities should carefully take such existing activities into account and build on their results.