Africa’s Education Ministers meet in Lilongwe over higher education

Africa’s Ministers of Higher Education, Science and Technology as well as senior government officials are expected to meet in Lilongwe from tomorrow to Wednesday to deliberate on specific actions required to improve the status of higher education in Africa.

According to a statement from the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (Ruforum), the meeting follows a side event President Peter Mutharika hosted at the United Nations headquarters in New York on September 26, during the 70th United Nations General Assembly (Unga).

Reads the statement in part: “The meeting is being organised under the auspices of His Excellency, Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika, the President of Malawi who has committed himself to working to improve collaboration and cooperation in the field of African higher education.

“The two-day ministerial dialogue will bring together 80 participants from over 15 countries from across Africa to deliberate on required actions to improve the higher education sector.”

According to Ruforum, delegates will deliberate on the outcomes from the side event at the UN.

The discussion, it says, will feed into the African Ministers consultation at the first specialised Technical Committee (STC) on Education, Science and Technology to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from October 28 to 30 October.

The Addis meeting has been organised by the African Union Commission.