African Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research (ACEIR) holds Strategy Meeting
The African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) has participated in a Strategy Meeting of the African Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research (ACEIR) The meeting, which is taking place in Akosombo, Ghana, will provide the opportunity for ACEIR to reflect on its first four years since inception, as well as provide ARUA with an opportunity to share its own medium and long-term plans with the Centre.
Prof. Murray Leibbrandt gave the welcome, after which Prof. Robert Osei, Prof. Damiano Manda and Prof. Vimal Ranchhod joined him in a session on ACEIR’s first four years, where each of them spoke briefly on their involvement and their node’s involvement in ACEIR; the processes of engagement in setting up the Centre and their own experiences of becoming involved and their views on this.
Institutional leaders from the University of Cape Town, University of Ghana and University of Nairobi shared their (strategic) institutional plans with the ACEIR team, in addition to speaking about their relationships with ARUA, how these relationships have evolved and been managed.
On institutional perspectives, the Deputy Vice-Chancellors spoke of their challenges and highlights of this set-up phase, their respective institution’s vision for ARUA going into the future and how this fits with the institution’s own strategic plans for the future. They also indicated areas ACEIR would need to be aware of, especially in planning the next five years, as well as the kind of institutional support that should be expected during this period.
ARUA Secretary-General, Prof. Ernest Aryeetey spoke on ARUA and ACEIR’s journey and presented ARUA’s vision and plan for the medium to long term. Each of the ARUA Centres are subject to a 5-year review in the latter half of 2022.
Other sessions at the Strategy Meeting will include Leadership and Governance, a discussion on ARUA’s leadership model, essentially on how the ARUA Centres have worked, ARUA’s thinking in respect of the different leadership models and modes of cross-university partnership(s), Key and Strategic Partnerships, Research, focusing on the Interdisciplinary research case study: TSITICA Project, which is ACEIR’s first large-scale interdisciplinary research project.
The meeting will take stock to allow members of the Centre to reflect on the kind of work and the processes involved in completing this work. These reflections are expected to inform subsequent discussions on future research.
Established in 2018, The African Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research (ACEIR) is one of the 13 Centres of Excellence of the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA). Configured as a hub-and-spoke model, the University of Cape Town hosts the hub, as well as the South Africa node. The Ghana node is convened by the University of Ghana, Legon, while the Kenya node is convened by the University of Nairobi.
