AAU discusses common academic accreditation

The Association of African Universities (AAU) has organised a two-day workshop in Accra, to discuss the possibility of harmonising academic accreditation for the transfer of academic credit from one African university to the other.

The validation workshop on the Pan African Quality Assurance and Accreditation Framework (PAQAF) was attended by representatives from accreditation agencies and ministries of education across Africa, who brought to bear their experiences in validating the proposed framework.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic at a two-day validation workshop on PAQAF in Accra, The Executive Secretary of the National Accreditation Board (NAB), Mr Kwame Dattey underscored the need for the establishment of such a framework to promote harmonisation among African universities.

The framework

This framework, he said, would also provide African universities with a common accreditation, to enhance the mobility of students from one African university to the other.

“The framework will also set modalities of comparability of degrees, diplomas and certificates in different African countries,” he added.

He said, currently it was difficult for Ghanaian students to transfer their academic credits to other African universities as a result of the disharmonised and fractured education systems in terms of languages, university entry standards and academic credit systems.

“Students sometimes have to go through cumbersome processes to continue from where they left off in their country or start all over again,” he added.

Mr Dattey said the proposal, when implemented, would be in partnership with the African Union (AU) and European Union (EU) and would ensure the free movement of students in African and European countries.

PAQAF

Earlier in his welcome address, the General Secretary of the AAU, Prof. Etienne Ehile, explained that Quality Assurance was at the core of higher education in Africa, and it was therefore, necessary to establish a PAQAF which was functional and provided an understanding of each other’s systems.

He noted that the PAQAF would consist of an African Quality Rating Mechanism (AQRM) which would ensure that the performance of African higher education institutions would be compared with common criteria, as well as enhancing their global competitiveness.

The Head of Co-operation of the EU Delegation to Ghana, Mr Ignacio Burrull, said harmonisation of higher education was one of its key objectives of collaborating with the AU, indicating that the EU would support the development of the PAQAF in the next three years.