Key statesmen and policy makers from across the continent are trekking to Senegal for this groundbreaking summit.

Samantha Spooner of Mail & Guardian Africa writes:

Senegal to host one-of-a-kind higher education summit for Africa

THERE is a renewed focus on the importance of higher education to the continent’s development, and Africa’s leaders are coming together to address it at a key summit to be hosted by Senegal.

“Higher education plays a critical role in social development and economic transformation across the continent. We, as the Government of Senegal, are pleased to have been recognised among nations as a suitable partner and host for this summit, said Senegal’s Minister of Higher Education and Research, Professor Mary Teuw Niane, at a press conference.

The summit, taking place in Dakar from the 10-12th March, is expected to draw an impressive line-up of over 500 participants, including Heads of State, representatives of academic unions, members of the business community and policymakers, from various African nations.

But this won’t just be a talking shop, TrustAfrica, a pan-African development body that is taking the lead in organising the event, created the summit with the primary goal of developing a common vision and contributing towards the development of an action plan to transform the African higher education sector in the next 50 years.

“The summit will provide a wonderful new opportunity for those in the sector to explore learn and debate a wide spectrum of topics including regulatory, technological and supply issues. With the continuing boom in enrolment figures and the rise in the number of higher education institutions, there is an urgent need to build a quality higher education sector”, said Omano Edigheji, TrustAfrica’s summit director. For this reason the summit was aptly themed “Revitalising Higher Education for Africa’s Future”.