Experts, EU and DAAD awarded for quality assurance work

On 16 September Goolam Mohammedbhai, Juma Shabani and Peter Okebukola were awarded by GUNi and AfriQAN for their tireless work on quality assurance in higher education in Africa. The European Union and the German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD, were awarded for their support to quality assurance processes on the continent.

GUNi is the Global University Network for Innovation and AfriQAN is the African Quality Assurance Network.

The awards were given at the launch of the 6th International Conference on Quality Assurance in Higher Education in Africa, held in Bujumbura, Burundi, last week. The conference explores the future direction of quality assurance in African higher education.

Goolam Mohammedbhai is a former secretary-general of the Association of African Universities and former president of the International Association of Universities.

He was vice-chancellor of the University of Mauritius from 1995 to 2005 and from 2004 to 2008 he presided over the International Association of Universities, which has its secretariat at UNESCO in Paris. Today, he works as an independent consultant.

Juma Shabani [pictured] recently retired from his work as a UNESCO director in the Education Sector in charge of coordination, monitoring and evaluation of UNESCO’s higher education programmes with a special focus on Africa.

He worked at many of the regional UNESCO offices throughout the continent. He was a deputy secretary-general of the Association of African Universities and vice-rector of the University of Burundi.

Peter Okebukola is the current president of GUNi Africa. He has been the director of the UNESCO Institute for African Culture and International Understanding since 2009.

From 2001 to 2006 he headed the National Universities Commission of Nigeria. Before that, he served, among many other things, as the deputy vice-chancellor and later vice-chancellor of Lagos State University.