The out-going Secretary General of ARUA, Prof Ernest Aryeetey expressed satisfaction with the steady improvement in most of the metrics of interest. He acknowledged the significant support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York towards capacity building, which has been instrumental in improving the quality of data shared with various stakeholders both through the project and member universities. He noted that evidence of the improvement was the development of the online portal for data-gathering, analysis and reporting.

Providing details on the report, Prof. Gerald Ouma, Senior Director for Institutional Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the University of Pretoria and lead consultant on the project, in his presentation, highlighted the growth that had occurred in many ARUA institutions over the period including the progress in women’s participation across the various fields of study at postgraduate levels, albeit from a low base. Most universities, he noted, remain predominantly undergraduate institutions despite advances in postgraduate enrolments and graduations. The report also highlighted the overall improvements in research output with a lot of focus in the area of public, environmental and occupational health and generally in the sciences.

Ms Rene Robbertz, Senior Business Intelligence Analyst at Stellenbosch University and lead for the development of the portal outlined its functionality for gathering information on institutional structures and data on the various metrics of interest to the project. She also demonstrated the analytical flexibility offered by the platform, noting that beyond high-level analysis for ARUA reports, a component of the portal would be developed for a much lower-level analysis (faculty/ departmental level) at the university level to support reporting and decision-making within member universities.

The ARUA Board Chair and VC of Rhodes University, Prof. Sizwe Mabizela, who performed the launch, urged universities to use the report to guide and inform their strategic decision-making to further consolidate ARUA. He stressed that the report was not intended to generate competition between ARUA member universities, but rather to highlight the strengths and opportunities that exist between and among member universities. He expressed appreciation to the Carnegie Corporation for the continued support which has made the project possible.

Ms Deana Arsenian, VP, International Program, Carnegie Corporation expressed delight with the progress made on the project, noting that Carnegie remained committed to higher education programmes on the continent. She lauded the ARUA initiative following its launch in Dakar, Senegal in 2015 and how it has brought into sharp focus the need for African universities to engage in research and to do so collaboratively with the proud support from Carnegie.

The current report covers data-gathering exercises undertaken over the period 2022 – 2023. The first report comprised of data gathered for the period 2015-2018. The second report launched in 2022 was from data gathered between 2019 – 2021. Several capacity-building initiatives towards improvements in institutional research within member universities have been held, in addition to workshops, study tours, and engagements with data coaches. All of these have been made possible through the support of Carnegie Corporation. More information about the project can be obtained here.

To watch the launch event, please click here:

The presentation from the launch event can be accessed below: