Sunday, 25 January 2015


AU Summit to Decide on the Selection of PAU Council and Host Country
Addis Ababa, 23 January 2015 - The 24th Summit of the African Union (AU) will take place from 23rd to 31stJanuary 2015, at the Headquarters of the African Union Commission (AUC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Among the issues to be decided at the Summit by AU leaders are: which African country will host the Rectorate of the Pan African University (PAU), and who will be the President and Vice President of the PAU governing Council. Four African countries (Benin, Cameroon, Ethiopia and Tunisia) are vying to host the Pan African University Rectorate, and nominations have been made among prominent African academics for the positions of President and Vice President of the PAU Council.
Background
The Pan African University is an African Union flagship aimed at revitalizing higher education and research in the continent. The program is designed to exemplify excellence, enhance the attractiveness and global competitiveness of African higher education and research, and establish the university at the core of Africa’s development. The Pan African University, which currently has its interimRectorate at the African Union Commission, is a great boost to the development and retention of Africa’s human resources, and to the attraction of the world’s best intellectual capacity to the continent.
The decision to establish PAU was made by the AU Heads of State and Government Summit in 2010, and the university enrolled its first students in 2012. Composed of a network of African academic institutions of excellence, PAU focuses mainly on science, technology, innovation, governance, humanities and social sciences, as its thematic areas. The thematics have been categorized under five different specialized hubs, hosted by PAU institutes in the five regions of Africa as follows:
  1. Basic Sciences, Technology and Innovation, hosted by Kenya (Eastern Africa)
  2. Life and Earth Sciences (including Health and Agriculture), hosted by Nigeria (Western Africa)
  3. Governance, Humanities and Social Sciences, hosted by Cameroon (Central Africa)
  4. Water and Energy Sciences (including Climate Change), hosted by Algeria (Northern Africa)
  5. Space Sciences, to be hosted by South Africa (Southern Africa) 

The Pan African University graduated its first batch of students on November 24th 2014, at its Institute for Basic Sciences, Technology and Innovation, in Kenya. The grand convocation was presided over by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission H.E Dr. NkosazanaDlaminiZuma.
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