MKU’s New Consortium with North Carolina State University (USA), Makerere University (Uganda), Mbarara University (Uganda), and Gulu University (Uganda)

The Consortium will leverage on teaching, Research, community outreach among other areas in support of African Union Agenda 2063 and sustainable Development Goals 2030.

Mount Kenya University (MKU) participated in the East Africa Higher Education Summit at Makerere University(Uganda) between 11^th – 13^th March, 2019.

The Summit was mainly funded by North Carolina State University (USA) which is also referred to as “NC State University”, and was co-hosted by Makerere University. At the close of the conference, the 5 universities present gave a communique as a media briefing. This was a public declaration on their joint commitment through a collaborative synergy in addressing various issues, including a multidisciplinary postgraduate training, food security, climate science, global public health and community engagement. The collaboration is hinged on all 3 core mandates of the University namely Teaching, Research and will soon be extended to cover as many disciplines as possible within the partnering universities.

The new consortium will be headquartered at Makerere University for ease of East African regional engagements.

The communique that declared the formulation of the consortium was signed by;

1. Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, Vice – Chancellor , Makerere University, Uganda
2. Dr. Ballian Li, Senior Vice Provost, Global Engagement, North Carolina State University
3. Prof George Ladaah Openjuru, Vice – Chancellor, Gulu University, Uganda.
4. Prof. Peter Wanderi, Principal Corporate Ervices, Representing the Vice -Chancellor, Mount Kenya University
5. Assoc. Prof. Gertrude Kiwanuka , Dean Faculty of Medicine, Representing the Vice-Chancellor, Mbarara University of Science & Technology, Uganda

According to the signed communique, the purpose of the 3 day Summit was to develop strategies for strengthening higher education partnerships in East Africa region. The new consortium is an over shoot of a 4 year long partnership between North Carolina State University and Makerere University which traces its history to 2015.

The objectives of the Consortium are:

1. Provide a platform for the East African Universities to dialogue on the transformation of higher education to support research and economic development
2. Discuss regional capacity building in higher education through partnerships
3. Explore implementation frameworks at the regional level

The signatories of the joint communique expressed their commitment towards deepening the strategic partnerships among the partner universities.

The Vice-Chancellors and Senior University representatives who signed the communique underscored the importance of such a multilateral collaboration as showcased by this consortium as an instrument to address current and future global challenges in line with Africa Union’s Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals 2030.

The signatories further committed themselves to enhance principles of complementarity, comparative advantage and collective responsibility. They indicated that after reviewing the challenges of higher Education and research in the region, they have agreed to pay special attention to post graduate training at PhD level as one of the first priorities.

As a way forward, the consortium shall focus on;

1. Building capacity and pursuing excellence in research, teaching and scholarship.
2. Increasing mobility of staff and students as well as strengthening regional training through;
3. Leveraging on joint graduate programs
4. Developing and retaining quality faculty to conduct quality research, teaching and community engagement.
5. International competitiveness of East African institutions of higher education
6. Assuring the quality of educational provision against agreed benchmarks of excellence.

The Consortium members will be meeting regularly to appraise the progress as well as develop comprehensive management structures.