The ANIE Annual Conference is Africa’s main forum on internationalization of higher education. The conference theme was “Africa, Internationalization and the Global Context: Making it Work”. The conference brought together about 50 higher education leaders, researchers, practitioners and students. Participants debated about contemporary trends in internationalization of higher education in Africa, the achievements that have been made over the last decade, main challenges, and the implications of global internationalization. Other themes included the goals of the Africa’s Agenda 2063 and Continental Education Strategy for Africa (2016 -2025).
The head of the APPEAR programme Andreas Obrecht and APPEAR scholar Kevin Obiero led a panel discussion titled “African Students and Scholars: A Look at Intra-Africa and Global Academic Mobility Trends”. The key message during the panel discussion was that international scholarship programmes play a fundamental role in the development of human resource capacity of African higher education and research institutions. The presentation highlighted the key outcomes of the APPEAR programme evaluation, published on September 2019. These include (i) the improvement of research and teaching capacity of partners; (ii) contribution to internationalization and academic mobility; and (iii) enlarged networks, enhanced knowledge and skills in the partner institutions. Furthermore concrete experiences of the scholarship component were discussed.
Kevin Obiero, affiliated to the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, finished his PhD thesis in 2019 at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences. His research was part of the APPEAR project Strengthening regional capacity in research and training in fisheries and aquaculture for improved food security and livelihoods in Eastern Africa | STRECAFISH.
