Demographics of African Faculty: East African Community
The Demographics of African Faculty (DAF) study aims to investigate the scale and nature of faculty challenges impacting the quality of higher education for students in the East African Community (EAC), and to use the insights for effective decision making.
The goal of the study is to increase the ability of Higher Education stakeholders to plan and implement evidence-informed responses to improve the numbers of quality faculty within Higher Education Institutions in the EAC.
The DAF EAC study is being conducted by a consortium made up of the Inter-University Council of East Africa, Education Sub Saharan Africa, the Association of African Universities, and the Population Reference Bureau, with funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
In building upon an initial pilot project in Ghana, the consortium seeks to address tertiary education faculty gaps in East Africa by expanding the project to cover the East African Community (EAC) – the Republics of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, the United Republic of Tanzania, and the Republic of Uganda.
Progress so far:
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Trained 12 IUCEA-appointed researchers from the six EAC countries carrying out data collection and analysis for the project;
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Research teams collected country data from the six target countries;
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Desk-based background research conducted on the existing and potential solutions for addressing faculty challenges in sub-Saharan Africa; and,
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Analysed the impact of COVID-19 on teaching models and the supply and demand of faculty in universities in the East African Community, using survey data collected from the various focus countries.
Partners
Carnegie Corporation of New York is one of America’s oldest grantmaking foundations that seeks to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.
ESSA together with IUCEA, AAU and PRB have secured $390,000 of funding from Carnegie Corporation of New York for a two-year research project focusing on understanding and addressing ‘faculty challenges’.
The Inter University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) was established in 1980, originally called the Inter University Committee. IUCEA is hosted in Kampala, Uganda with its main objective being to facilitate networking among universities in East Africa, and with universities outside the region.
IUCEA works with ESSA on the Demographic of Faculty initiative.
AAU is one of the key players in higher Education in Africa. With almost 400 members its mission is to enhance the quality and relevance of higher education in Africa and to strengthen its contribution to Africa’s development.
AAU formed a partnership with ESSA in 2017, and we have been working together on a range of projects, most notably the “Demographics of Faculty” and the creation of a “Pan African Academic Jobs Board”.
The Population Reference Bureau (PRB), in Washington DC, is one of the world’s leading demographic institutions. It informs people around the world about population, health, and the environment, and empowers them to use that information to advance the well-being of current and future generations.
PRB works with AAU and ESSA on the Demographic of Faculty initiative.