Team Member Name
Job Title
Review of the 42 Pan African University Master's and PhD Programmes
Review of the Pan African University's programme portfolio across all PAU Institutes in Cameroon, Nigeria, Kenya, and Algeria, focusing on architecture, overall structure, teaching standards, alignment with the PAU mission, balance between programmes, alignment with the overall African Union agenda, and institutionalised partnerships of the entire Institute.
Partner/Client
African Union & PAU – Pan African University
Focus
Higher Education I Gender, Diversity & Inclusion
Expertise
Programme Review I Quality Assurance I Stakeholder Engagement
Location
Algeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Nigeria
Funding
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
Status
Ongoing
Link
CHALLENGE
_ The African Union established PAU to revitalise higher education and research in the Continent. During the inception phase from 2012-2018, PAU established basic legal and governance frameworks, and the Institutes opened programmes, welcoming students at the master's and Phd levels.
_Now in the consolidation phase (from 2020-2024), the PAU Strategic Plan calls for a Programme Portfolio Review of its 42 master's and PhD programmes to ensure that its curricula are aligned with the PAU objective to advance the development imperatives of Africa in order to meet the aspirations outlined under Agenda 2063.
_ Paeradigms was brought in to conduct the portfolio review, focusing on the macro and meso level, looking at the entire portfolio of programmes at each Institute and across Institutes as a whole: its architecture, overall structure, teaching standards, alignment with the PAU mission, balance between programmes, the alignment with the overall African Union agenda, and institutionalised partnerships of the entire Institute.
APPROACH
_ The Paeradigms expert team of high-level academics from 9 African countries represents subject area expertise corresponding to the PAU programmes, and considerable experience in university management, stakeholder engagement, and research partnerships.
_ The review involves engaging PAU Stakeholders including the African Union, to reach consensus on the criteria and objectives of the review. The expert team works closely with PAU Institutes to assemble and generate evidence-based responses to the review criteria.
_ Coordination across Institutes between the expert team, PAU Institutes and Rectorate, as well as external stakeholders and donors is a key element in the progression of the project.
_ Due to the newness of the university and the range of host country requirements, standardisation and documentation is a challenge. The expert team has developed a hybrid and flexible methodology to accommodate differences and accurately reflect the realities faced by each Institute.
RESULTS
_ Mapping the principles and relevance criteria set out in a previous consultancy to the underlying rationale and framework conditions to provide a clear pathway to the project objective.
_ Developing a methodological approach by analysing each criterion to define preliminary indicators and guiding questions that form the basis for the review.
_ Validating the criteria for the review first with PAU leadership and then with their stakeholders and donors in a series of formal workshops including participation and sponsorship from the African Union.
_ Maintaining communication with Institute Directors separately to review the scope of the project and develop a shared understanding of the expectations from the review as well as opportunities presented by the review for each Institute.
PROJECT GALLERY
