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AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
VISION AND INTRODUCTION
The Nelson Mandela Institute will ultimately operate several science and technology higher education campuses and smaller affiliated centers of excellence located throughout Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), which institutes shall be collectively known as the African Institute of Science and Technology (AIST).
AIST represents a global effort to foster SSA's economic growth and development through the promotion of excellence in science and engineering and their applications. The ultimate vision of NMI is to operate four AIST campuses across SSA--one each in the north, south, east, and west of the continent. Each AIST campus will be a world-class institution dedicated to academic freedom and the pursuit of excellence. Each will have a transparent and accountable system of governance and will be supported by two advisory boards of preeminent academics. The institutions will offer instruction in science and engineering--combined with teaching in the humanities and business--comparable to the most revered institutions around the world. Each will produce outstanding scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and leaders who will continually create and adapt knowledge to transform local communities and improve the human condition across the African continent. Each facility will be strongly linked with the private sector to ensure the relevance of its teaching and research. Each will be a magnet for Africa's best and brightest students, researchers, and teachers. Each campus will be self-sustainable and financially independent of government.
AIST will draw on the decentralized model that has been successfully implemented by IIT-Bombay. Core disciplines in science and engineering will be delivered by all of the main campuses at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Affiliated centers of excellence, located strategically throughout the continent, will focus on delivering postgraduate education and conducting cutting-edge research in particular fields of specialization. The curriculum and research efforts of all AIST campuses and centers of excellence will be focused on problems specific to Africa. Admission to AIST will be through an independently administered competitive process.
The establishment of AIST will bring significant and tangible benefits to the economies and societies of Africa. Its top-flight scientists and engineers--grounded in business and industry and with skills in leadership, entrepreneurship, and the humanities--will help drive Africa's development and contribute to solving the problems that afflict that continent. AIST will also lift Africa's existing education system. Through competition, its development will force the improvement of its peers in higher education. As students strive for admission into its prestigious programs, better secondary and, eventually, primary schools will be demanded. AIST also will help stem the brain drain currently afflicting Africa. The institute will encourage students and faculty to remain on the continent by providing an excellent environment for study, research, and teaching. It also will foster "brain recirculation" by encouraging Africa's great diaspora to return to their continent of birth, if only for short periods at a time. Finally, through its close cooperation with business and industry, AIST will help close Africa's existing skills gap by ensuring that the globally competitive human capital it produces is equipped with the capabilities demanded in the modern world economy.
AIST will be implemented in stages. The first stage will see the development of an AIST campus in Abuja, Nigeria. This campus will open its doors to its first students in September 2008. Small but focused centers of excellence placed in strategic locations across the African continent and strongly connected to AIST-Abuja will follow shortly. The other campuses will be developed as the need and resources for their development are identified.
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AIST'S OBJECTIVES
The objectives in establishing the AIST-Abuja campus are clear and specific. They fall under three broad headings: human capital development; improvement of Africa's education system; and knowledge development, incubation, and dissemination.
Growing human capital is critical to the economic development of Africa. AIST-Abuja will produce world-class scientists and engineers with the skills necessary to be leaders and entrepreneurs within their communities and societies in Africa; create and expand access and opportunities for education for disadvantaged students; and attract and retain quality students, researchers, and teachers, thereby assisting in developing Africa's human capital and mitigating the brain drain currently afflicting Africa.
AIST-Abuja is uniquely placed to have a positive impact on the quality of Africa's education system. In this regard, it will lift the quality of existing tertiary and secondary institutions by the example it sets and through the competitive process of admission; provide leadership in the promotion of excellence in education in SSA through programs for faculty development--both for its own staff and for teachers in other higher learning institutions in SSA; and work with regional and national learning institutions to promote excellence in education.
AIST-Abuja will play a critical role in developing and incubating scientific and technological knowledge and in disseminating that knowledge. It will carry out basic and applied research while developing collaborative links with other academic and research institutions in SSA and abroad--all in close collaboration with industry. Through collaboration and exchanges with other international centers of excellence, it also will enhance the transfer of technology to SSA.
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THE AIST CONCEPT
AIST-Abuja will be the first AIST campus. It will be a not-for-profit institution. It will be a respected, world-class technological university, whose purpose is to train, and help retain in Africa, top-level scientists and engineers. The medium of instruction at AIST-Abuja will be English. Special language courses will be provided to non-English speakers.
The AIST-Abuja campus will be located within the Abuja Technology Village (ATV)--a planned cluster of leading research institutes and a research and technology park located on a 1,000-hectare site 10 minutes from Abuja's city center and 20 minutes from Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport. This land already has been dedicated by the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for this purpose.
The AIST-Abuja campus will occupy approximately a quarter of this site. Its architecture will seek to foster excellence in learning, teaching, and research. Its buildings, classrooms, common spaces, and landscaped surroundings will provide an environment that inspires attainment of knowledge and the pursuit of excellence. It will be equipped with the most up-to-date Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).
AIST-Abuja will be a residential campus for both students and faculty. Many first-class institutions around the world are nonresidential. However, in developing countries, nonresidential universities have, generally, not fared as well as residential campuses. Residential institutions have managed to develop strong track records and brand images in developing countries because
- Students can access advanced facilities, including the Internet, on an around-the-clock basis, which they are unlikely to be able to do if living away from the campus.
- A residential campus results in much closer interaction between faculty and students and among students themselves, fostering a stronger learning and collegiate environment
- A residential campus provides students from abroad and outside of Abuja with comfortable accommodation equal to that of the students from Abuja. This equality makes integration into campus life easier for all.
The AIST-Abuja campus will include the following components:
- A central administrative building to house the central executive administration.
- A central library, which will be the focus of academic activity for students and faculty and for academia and industry in the region. This library will not simply be a collection of books but also an advanced digital center. Online catalogues, journals, and databases will be available and the latest in ICT will be provided.
- An ICT center, which will provide students with computer, printing, copying, Internet and email facilities.
- A centralized lecture hall complex with several rooms of different sizes for use as classrooms and for special functions, colloquia, and seminars. This complex will include conference facilities capable of handling a large number of participants.
- A cluster of buildings for each school with faculty rooms, discussion rooms, lecture rooms, and rooms for seminars, departmental offices, laboratories, and workshops. Each school will have computer facilities able to access library and Internet services.
- Residential accommodation sufficient for students and faculty.
- Facilities for student organizational activities.
- Sport, cultural, and recreation facilities to cater to the extracurricular interests of students and faculty.
- Shops and retail outlets.
- K-12 school and day-care facilities for faculty and administrative staff.
- Landscaped areas to enhance the overall ambience of the campus.
The AIST-Abuja campus will be developed in stages. It will be master planned using fractal concepts so it can grow without significant disruption to the operation of the facilities already in place.
AIST-Abuja aims to produce excellent scientists and engineers who are also prepared for broader roles in Africa's societies. Its graduating students will become leaders, not followers; job creators, not job seekers; and agents for positive change, not naysayers who might impede necessary reforms. To that end, the academic programs will be offered through three schools--the School of Science, the School of Engineering, and the School of Humanities and Management--and a number of interdisciplinary centers. AIST-Abuja's pedagogy will move away from the theoretical and rote approaches that currently characterize Africa's institutions. Its approach will emphasize critical thinking, analysis, synthesis, and problem solving. A description of the programs to be offered through each of these schools and the interdisciplinary centers is outlined below.
School of Science - All science departments at AIST-Abuja's School of Science will offer a joint Bachelor of Science (BS) and Master of Science (MS) degree program, lasting five years. Emphasis in this degree will be on applied science, with strong analytical foundations. All students in the first two years of the program will be given a sound foundation in basic mathematics and science, along with laboratory experience and electives in the humanities. The following years will be spent on a chosen concentration, with a good part of the final year spent on a research project. A Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) program of three or four years also will be offered by the School of Science, with an emphasis on excellence in research.
The specific departments to be housed within the School of Science include departments of mathematical sciences, physics, biological sciences and technology, environmental sciences, and applied chemistry.
School of Engineering - The principal offering of the School of Engineering will be the Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) degree. This will be a four-year program, and will include a compulsory practical externship at the end of the third year and a comprehensive design project during the fourth year. The first two years of the BEng degree will be spent on mathematics, computation, natural and engineering sciences, and an introduction to engineering design. Specialization in a particular field will start in the first semester of the second year. The school also will offer a Master of Engineering (MEng) degree by coursework over a one-year period and a PhD degree based on research over a three- or four-year period.
The specific departments to be housed within the School of Engineering include departments of civil and environmental engineering; petroleum and gas engineering; electrical engineering and computer science; mechanical, aerospace, and manufacturing engineering; food and agricultural engineering; chemical engineering; and materials science and engineering.
School of Humanities and Management - The School of Humanities and Management will not offer an undergraduate degree. It will, however, offer a selection of elective courses in economics, technology management, philosophy, ethics, entrepreneurship, and languages to undergraduate and postgraduate students from the science and engineering schools. In addition, the school will offer a two-year MS degree and a three- to four-year PhD degree in the management of technology. The specific departments to be housed within the School of Humanities and Management include the departments of anthropology and sociology, economics, languages, law, management, and philosophy.
Interdisciplinary Centers - The interdisciplinary centers will enable research and teaching to be undertaken in new and emerging fields that, because of their complexity, require input from a number of areas of expertise. The centers will offer postgraduate degrees only. They will be established in the fields of Arts, Communication, and Culture; Biotechnology; Materials; Modeling and Information Technology; Petrochemical Engineering; and Science and Technology Management.
At full capacity, AIST-Abuja is expected to have a total of 5,500 students, 40 percent of whom will be in graduate programs. It is anticipated that the intake of new students annually will be 1,250. AIST-Abuja students will come from all corners of the African continent. Although attention will be given to maintaining both geographic and gender diversity, the students of AIST-Abuja will be among the brightest, hardest-working, and most committed students in Africa.
To that end, admission to AIST-Abuja's undergraduate programs will be competitive. Applicants for admission will be assessed through the African Common Entrance Examination (CEE), discussed in more detail below. Admission to AIST-Abuja's graduate programs will be based on a competitive undergraduate degree, recommendations from a recognized university, and performance in an independently administered Graduate Record Examination or Graduate Management Admission Test.
Admission to AIST-Abuja will be unrelated to capacity to pay. No student who is accepted will be denied entry if he or she is unable to pay the costs of his or her education. However, students who are able to pay will be expected to contribute to their educational expenses. The contributions expected of these students will depend on the financial resources of their families.
Students at AIST-Abuja will be encouraged to participate in the campus's sports, artistic, political, cultural and intellectual extracurricular activities. Participation in these activities develops character, perspective, tolerance, and leadership skills and qualities expected of AIST-Abuja graduates. Involvement in these activities will be voluntary.
The quality of AIST-Abuja as an institution of higher learning will be determined largely by the quality of its faculty. A high-quality faculty will attract excellent students and the funds required for the viability of the project. Good students and funding will, in turn, attract quality faculty. These positively reinforcing effects can begin only with the attraction of excellent faculty. AIST-Abuja will, therefore, ensure that it attracts and retains such a faculty. At the outset, a balance of young, dynamic researchers and academicians and senior academicians with a vision for developing their areas of expertise and connections to industry will be targeted. All faculty members will be committed to making their departments and AIST-Abuja a world-class institution.
For the engineering disciplines, a PhD from a well-reputed university or institution will be the minimum (but not sufficient) requirement at the entry level of the faculty. For the sciences and humanities, in addition to a PhD, the candidate will have to have some postdoctoral experience. In the initial stages, these high standards will constrain recruitment in some disciplines. To overcome this, exceptional people with a master's degree in a relevant field may be recruited on a contractual basis and will be provided with facilities for completing a PhD in an academic institution abroad. In addition, supplementary faculty will be recruited from supportive institutions such as IIT-Bombay. This infusion of supplementary faculty will allow AIST-Abuja during its formative years to adopt some of the world's best practices.
Multiple incentives will be provided to attract and retain a superior faculty. The faculty will be offered tax-free salaries and benefits, which, though perhaps not competitive with the top universities in the United States, will be set at a level to afford a comfortable standard of living on the African continent. In addition, other benefits such as good housing at a reasonable rate, good education for children, and opportunities for spouses will be offered to add to the attractiveness of the positions. Furthermore, a research environment with opportunities to attract good-quality masters, doctoral, and postdoctoral students will enable the faculty to engage in contemporary, internationally significant research.
Application of this research and development through interaction with industry is an essential incentive to retain quality faculty. For this reason, AIST-Abuja will proactively engage regional industry in and around Nigeria, as well as provide incentives for faculty to interact with relevant industry. Faculty engaged in basic research will also be funded so that they can attract good students. Finally, it is essential that faculty members regularly interact with their peers at regional and international levels and discuss their research and development activities. The opportunity to do this will be included as a part of the package offered to AIST-Abuja faculty.
A new institution such as AIST-Abuja has the best chance of success if an existing, reputable institution is standing behind it. AIST-Abuja has secured the support of the highly regarded IIT-Bombay in this respect. IIT-Bombay is an ideal partner for AIST-Abuja for many reasons. It is a world-class institute that has existed for almost 50 years. Also, IIT-Bombay evolved in an emerging market environment. It is, therefore, ideally placed to assist AIST-Abuja's development in Africa. Finally, IIT-Bombay's leaders have been closely involved with the AIST concept so far. They are familiar with the challenges the concept faces and the solutions being developed.
IIT-Bombay's support of AIST-Abuja will be provided in a number ways, including provision of input to the business plan; assistance in establishing academic and administrative standards; provision of personnel to supplement the faculty of AIST-Abuja, thus ensuring that IIT-Bombay ideas and best practices are adopted by AIST; and assistance in the design and implementation of the CEE.
The involvement of IIT-Bombay in the AIST-Abuja campus is expected to be significant and intense in the early years of the institution's development. As AIST-Abuja evolves, the intensity of IIT-Bombay's involvement will decrease.
Admission to AIST-Abuja's undergraduate programs will be through a universally administered CEE. This exam will be based on the highly successful Joint Entrance Exam employed by India's IITs. Demonstration of proficiency in English, AIST-Abuja's language of instruction, will also be necessary.
The CEE will incorporate a number of key attributes. First, it will be independent and free from outside interference. Students will be admitted on the basis of merit alone. This will ensure that only the best are admitted and will feed the positively reinforcing process discussed above. Second, the CEE will be rigorous. This will make certain that quality candidates are separated from the rest of the applicants. Finally, the CEE will be transparent. This will reinforce the merit-based nature of the CEE and will strengthen its reputation along with the reputation of AIST-Abuja.
The CEE will test knowledge in mathematics, physics, and possibly chemistry. It will be conducted in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.
The CEE will be administered by an independent body within AIST-Abuja, headed by a professor nominated from within the faculty. The office will be staffed by trustworthy people, who will move out to other sections of the institute after a maximum of three years. All confidential operations will be performed on a "need-to-know" basis.
In AIST-Abuja's initial years, in addition to the CEE process, admission will be offered to the five best high school graduates from each African country. This will have a dual effect. First, it will ensure that a minimum number of students from each country in SSA attend AIST-Abuja. Second, and more importantly, these students will, in later years, act as role models for students aspiring to attend AIST-Abuja from those countries, thereby raising the standards of the high school education system in that country. The CEE system will also be carefully used to reserve places for groups in society, such as women, who, because of the lack of comparable opportunities afforded them in life, are not as well equipped to compete in the CEE as are others.
NMI will also operate centers of excellence across the African continent. Such centers will focus on educating students and conducting research in specific areas of science and technology relevant to Africa. They will be autonomously managed but will have a cooperative relationship with AIST-Abuja (and other AIST campuses as they are developed), which may involve sharing of the AIST name, the exchange of students and faculty, and the joint responsibility for the education of students. The performance of these centers will be audited on a regular basis to ensure their conformance with AIST standards and their continued affiliation with NMI.
These centers are likely to develop in two possible ways. First, they may be existing centers that are presently unrelated to NMI but, following discussions and negotiations, may choose to enter into an affiliation with NMI and its other schools. Second, new centers may be operated solely by NMI.
The AIST-Abuja campus and its affiliated centers of excellence will not operate in a vacuum--the training they will provide will give students practical skills for their use in careers in business, industry, and government. Maintaining close connections with the outside world will ensure that the curriculum of AIST-Abuja is relevant to potential employers of its graduates; research conducted is relevant to the problems of the real world; funding is forthcoming; new ideas and developments are incorporated into the operations of the campus; students are able to gain meaningful internships and work experience during their time at AIST-Abuja; and business, industry, and government leaders can inspire and pass on their wisdom to Africa's next generation of leaders.
The practical relevance of the training provided at AIST-Abuja will be established and maintained at a number of levels:
- The Board of Trustees will include members from business, industry, and the public sector.
- Oversight and advisory committees established for the AIST-Abuja campus will also include members from business, industry, and the public sector.
- Faculty will have incentives to develop and maintain connections with business, industry, and the public sector, particularly with respect to designing and implementing research projects and raising the funds necessary to undertake those projects.
- A careers office will be established. This office will be responsible for developing connections with the human resources divisions within industry and government with the purpose of understanding their demands, ensuring those demands are recognized in the curriculum developed, and providing access to business and government for its students.
- Guest lecturers and adjunct faculty will come from industry and government.
- Programs will be established to encourage alumni and alumnae to maintain an interest in the business of AIST-Abuja and its students.
AIST faculty, students, and graduates will ideally possess certain attributes, such as dedication to excellence and cutting-edge research and teaching in niche areas where an impact can be made, an ability to think critically, an orientation to service and to entrepreneurship, dedication to helping resolve problems of Africa, and humility and a lack of arrogance or hubris. Efforts will be made as the campus is developed to ensure that these qualities are imbued in the faculty, students, and graduates of AIST.
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THE CASE FOR AIST
The economic, social, and developmental arguments for developing AIST-Abuja are strong. First, as is well understood, science and technology are critical to economic growth. Africa suffers a shortage of human capital with scientific and technological skills. For example, SSA produces approximately 83 engineers per one million of population per year whereas the same number for developed countries is, on average, 1000. China is currently aiming to produce a million engineers a year, or about 750 per million of population. Africa's development, therefore, is dependent on the establishment of an effective system for developing and retaining scientific and technological knowledge.
Second, a skills gap currently prevails in Africa. The demand by industry and businesses for scientific and technological skills exceeds the supply of those skills currently provided by the existing higher education system. There is, therefore, a sound argument on the grounds of supply and demand for an increase in the supply of quality science and engineering graduates from Africa's universities.
Third, the development of AIST, beginning with AIST-Abuja, will have a positive and sustainable impact on Africa's broader education system in a way that would not be possible if it were not developed.
Finally, other positive, incremental economic and social impacts are expected to emerge from the development of AIST-Abuja.
Each of these points is explored briefly below.
The world is changing at a rapid pace, driven largely by developments in science and technology. Yet, the benefits of this change are not shared equitably across the globe. Indeed, a vicious cycle is at work whereby the developing nations (especially the science and technology-lagging countries) fall farther and farther behind the industrialized nations that have the resources--in financial as well as human-development terms--to apply scientific advances and new technologies ever more intensively and creatively. The current disparity is likely to grow even wider as the industrialized nations continue to master the tools of science and invention, vastly outspend the developing nations in research and development, and even capture some of the developing nations' most precious human resources for their own use.
The roles of tertiary education and science and technology in economic development are well understood and do not need to be reiterated at length here. However, it is worth briefly restating the main arguments:
- Tertiary education institutions play a critical role in supporting knowledge-driven economic growth and in the construction of democratic and socially cohesive societies. Tertiary education institutions assist in the improvement of the public sector and its institutions through the training of competent and responsible professionals; provide crucial support for national innovation, which is critical to economic growth; often constitute the backbone of a country's information infrastructure; and imbue in their students the necessary norms, values, attitudes, and ethics that form the social capital required for a healthy and cohesive society.
- Science and technology play a more specific, but equally important, role in a country's or region's economic development. This is because advances in science and changes in technology are the main drivers of economic growth and development; being scientifically and technologically advanced allows firms to compete in global markets and therefore to generate income, higher wages, and wealth; and scientific and technological knowledge allow practical problems related to, for example, health, shelter, access to food and water, transportation, and communication to be solved for the betterment of humanity.
Although it is not possible to prove direct causation between investment in science and technology and economic development, there is a clear relationship between a country's economic well-being and its ranking as a scientific and technological nation. Figure 1 bears this out. For three groups of nations--developed economies, other developing economies, and Sub-Saharan African economies--these graphs show, respectively, scientific and technical journal articles per million of population, high technology exports as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and expenditure on research and development as a percentage of GDP--all compared with GDP per capita. In other words, they show scientific and technological progress against economic performance.
It is immediately clear from these figures that the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa rank poorly in science and technology. They also rate poorly economically. By creating a world-class, pan-African, scientific and technological institute, the AIST initiative--beginning with the AIST-Abuja campus--will contribute significantly to Africa's scientific and technological capacity and, therefore, to its chances for successful economic development.
To further appreciate why AIST-Abuja is such a critical initiative, it is important to understand the nature of national knowledge development. As a recent World Bank report points out, "the logic of national innovation systems favors the strong becoming stronger" In other words, countries such as the United States, on the basis of their existing strength as centers of intellectual excellence, attract the world's brightest individuals, thereby increasing that strength. On the other hand, those countries not considered to have a strong intellectual culture find their brightest individuals leaving in search of opportunities elsewhere. Thus, they are becoming even weaker. To break this nexus, the World Bank goes on to recommend that "countries that want to improve their innovative capacity have to make significant efforts to acquire and maintain [a] critical mass of infrastructure, institutions, and human resources." The AIST initiative, beginning with its first campus in Abuja, will be a key step in Africa's quest to acquire and maintain this critical mass.
A disparity currently exists in the market for skilled labor in Africa. Take Nigeria, for example, which is SSA's largest country. On the one hand, a large quantity of skilled labor is supplied by Nigeria's existing system of higher education. As a recent report by the World Bank concludes, "the main problem facing employers in Nigeria is not a lack of skilled labor...." Indeed, only about one-half of graduates from the higher education system find immediate employment. On the other hand, however, Africa spends an estimated $4 billion annually on recruiting some 100,000 expatriates to fill positions that cannot be filled by local African talent. When these statistics are considered together, they show that a gap exists between the demand for skilled labor and that which is supplied locally. This gap is not a quantitative gap--the existing system of higher education is clearly producing more graduates than the labor market can absorb. Rather, it is one of quality. Companies are importing skilled labor to fill the positions that local resources are under-equipped to fill.
This notion is reinforced by the efforts companies in Africa must make to bring their graduate recruits up to a level that makes them employable. Companies in all parts of the world dedicate resources to initiating their new graduate recruits into the modus operandi of their new employer. But companies in Nigeria, to use this country as an example again, go to extraordinary lengths to equip their new recruits with some of the basic skills necessary to operate in a work environment.
The creation of AIST-Abuja will help ease this lack of quality graduates. It will do this through the top-quality graduates it will produce, and also in its role as a catalyst for the improvement of Africa's higher and secondary education systems (see discussion below).
The creation of AIST-Abuja will be a catalyst for the revitalization of national education systems, including primary and secondary institutions, throughout Africa. This will occur in a number of ways. First, AIST-Abuja will provide faculty currently at Africa's existing institutions of higher learning with fellowship opportunities to teach and research at the main campus in Abuja or in the centers of excellence throughout the continent. These fellowships will provide existing faculty a period of up to two years to experience and be a part of the world-class environment of AIST. They will then return to their existing institutions with enhanced skills and experience in teaching and research. The quality of faculty throughout institutions in Africa will also be improved as AIST-educated academics fill positions in other universities.
Second, AIST-Abuja will compete with existing universities for the best science and engineering students. This competition will drive the improvement of Africa's existing institutions. Competition for postgraduate study places at AIST-Abuja and its affiliated centers of excellence will also force existing universities to compete against one another at the undergraduate level. Students intending to complete postgraduate studies at AIST will want to obtain undergraduate degrees from institutions with a reputation for adequately preparing their students for the rigors of an AIST postgraduate education.
Third, competition for undergraduate admission to AIST-Abuja will force secondary schools to improve their curriculum and educational performance. Secondary schools wishing to see their students admitted to the premier science and technology institution in Africa will have to ensure that their students are capable of competing in the CEE process. Secondary schools preparing students to take the CEE will be teaching at the highest level.
Fourth, promoting research at the continent-wide level will involve a pooling of resources. This will limit costs for any given country, while increasing the benefits for all--especially the very small, low-income countries. Smaller countries that lack the human and financial resources to sustain excellence in institutions of higher learning will benefit greatly from this continental approach.
The development of AIST-Abuja is also expected to reap other developmental returns. These include:
- economic diversification and growth enhanced through the creation of technology parks around the AIST regional institutes for seeding innovations;
- reduction of education expenses and costs as a result of economies of scale offered by the continental approach underpinning the initiative;
- creation of incentives for the emulation of best practices and human resource development on a larger scale through the institution of a competitive process for promoting excellence continent-wide and producing world-class engineers and scientists;
- promotion of research at the continent-wide level in a cost-effective manner, through pooling of resources, which will limit costs for any given country, especially the very small, low-income countries, while increasing the benefits for all; and increased benefits of the continental approach for all, especially for a large number of smaller countries that lack the human and financial resources to sustain excellence in institutions of higher learning.
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GOVERNANCE AND ORGANIZATION
A transparent and accountable system of governance is critical to the success of AIST-Abuja. Equally important is AIST-Abuja's ability to access business and industry at a global level and to tap into leading technological ideas and trends. The institutional governance and organizational structure proposed here will meet these needs.
Each AIST campus, including AIST-Abuja, will be operated by NMI with stringent transparency and disclosure requirements. This will allow each campus to serve the needs of the region in which it is located, ensuring the good will of the population at large and helping to protect the campus from outside interference. Common best practices will be maintained through regular contact between campus boards and administrators.
Each campus will maintain a statutory Board of Trustees (BoT) appointed by and responsible to the NMI Board of Directors (BoD). In addition, to gain access to leading technological ideas and trends and to ensure that the academic environment at the AIST campuses is world-class, the BoT, the administration, and the academic community of each campus will have access to a nonstatutory International Scientific Advisory Board (ISAB) and the African Scientific Committee (ASC). The governance structure for NMI and AIST-Abuja is outlined in the figure below.
The composition, reporting lines, and responsibilities of each of the elements of this governance structure are outlined in more detail below.
NMI Board of Directors: NMI's BoD is chaired by Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (former Minister of Finance, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Managing Director, World Bank); .It is made up of H. E. Joachim Chissano (former President of the Republic of Mozambique); Professor Peter Anyang'Nyong'o (Former Minister of Planning and National Development, Kenya); Dr. Frannie Léautier (Managing Partner, The Fezembat Group); Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (former Minister of Finance, Federal Republic of Nigeria); Pierre Sane (Assistant Director General for Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO); and Paatii Ofosu-Amaah (Vice-President and Corporate Secretary of the World Bank Group).
The board is responsible for setting the overall direction of NMI, including AUST and its campuses. Its key responsibility with respect to AUST-Abuja is to appoint and oversee the BoT and to oversee its operations until this BoT is appointed.
AIST-Abuja Board of Trustees: The AIST-Abuja BoT has yet to be appointed. It will comprise 11 to 15 members and its composition will balance people of different geographical, political, and professional backgrounds. It is expected that the majority of BoT members will be from the African continent. The remainder will be from the Asia, Europe and the United States. The BoT's composition will also reflect the experience and expertise required to oversee this ambitious development. To that end, members of the BoT will have expertise in finance, academia, and African politics. The BoT will contain people with the connections and experience necessary to assist in raising the funds required for the success of the AIST-Abuja campus. Finally, the BoT will reflect AIST-Abuja's commitment to racial and gender diversity and to excellence. The president of AIST-Abuja will be an ex-officio member of the BoT.
Key responsibilities of the BoT will include the provision of governance and independent oversight, the appointment of key personnel, the establishment of campus policy, and the provision of assistance and expertise where and when it is required. The decisions of the BoT are binding on the campus administration. There will be no interference from the BoT in relation to AIST-Abuja's academic programs.
Independent Scientific Advisory Board: The ISAB has already been established by NMI and is responsible to the NMI BoD. It comprises nine distinguished scientists and experts from North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is chaired by Professor Phillip Griffiths (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) and includes Professor Anthony Cheetham (University of California); Professor Mohamed Hassan (African Academy of Sciences); Professor Yongxiang Lu (Chinese Academy of Sciences); Professor Ashok Misra (Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay); Professor Jacob Palis (Institute of Applied and Pure Mathematics, Brazil); Professor C.N.R. Rao (Third World Academy of Sciences); Professor Wole Soboyejo (Princeton University); and Professor Hans Wigzell (Scientific Advisor to the Government of Sweden).
The establishment of the ISAB allows AIST to draw on leading science and engineering experts. The responsibilities of the ISAB include establishing mechanisms for quality control and advising the management of AIST on issues related to faculty, staffing, academic programs, and curriculum development. ISAB members are also committed to playing a leading role in supporting the implementation of AIST. The ISAB will also provide a forum for additional input and out-of-the-box thinking for AIST-Abuja.
African Science Committee: The ASC also has already been established by NMI and is responsible to the NMI BoD. It is chaired by Professor Wole Soboyejo (Princeton University and a member of the ISAB) and comprises a large number of eminent scientists and professionals. Approximately half of the ASC are African nationals based in leading institutions in Europe and the United States and the other half are African nationals based in universities on the continent.
The ASC will provide advice to the AIST-Abuja BoT, the president, other academic staff, and other institutions as they are developed. It will assist in developing academic programs, the curriculum, the admission process, and the composition of faculty. It will also play an instrumental role in the recruitment of faculty and in mobilizing support for AIST-Abuja within the academic and business communities.
Finance Advisory Committee: The Finance Advisory Committee (FAC) will be responsible for overseeing the financial management of AIST, including fundraising, internal audit, financial procedures, and annual budgets, and conducting the annual financial review. It will comprise people with appropriate financial skills and experience. The FAC has yet to be appointed by the NMI BoD.
Governance Advisory Committee: The Governance Advisory Committee (GAC) will act to ensure that the overall governance of the AIST and the endowment is appropriately structured. It will oversee the integrity of AIST governance and will conduct the annual governance review. The GAC has yet to be appointed by the NMI BoD.
Additional Committees: Other entities composed of both members of advisory committees and directors of NMI's BoD or AIST-Abuja's BoT ("Hybrid Committees") also will be established. The goal of these hybrid committees is to ensure the continued sustainability of AIST structure and operations. The most important Hybrid Committee is the Appointments Committee, which will be responsible for appointments to all Boards of Directors of all AIST entities as well as appointments to all advisory committees and high-level administrative appointments at the AIST institutions. Other hybrid committees to be established include the Dispute Resolution Committee, which will deal with internal disputes among entities; and the Termination Committee, which will deal with terminations of members and directors. These hybrid committees have not yet been established.
President: A permanent President for AIST-Abuja has not yet been appointed. However, Dr. Karl Voltaire has been appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in the interim.
The permanent President of AIST-Abuja will be an eminent scientist and educator with extensive experience in Academic Administration. He or she need not be a member of faculty. The President will be the Chief Executive of the campus. He or she will be responsible to the BoT as well as being an ex-officio member of that body. The President's responsibilities will be broad. He or she will be responsible for the ultimate academic and financial performance of AIST-Abuja. Key areas of focus for the president will include Faculty and Administrative appointments, Fundraising and Financial matters, Infrastructure design and Procurement (especially during the start-up phases of the campus), Student admissions, and all other managerial matters pertinent to the successful operation of the AIST-Abuja campus.
The President will be assisted in the leadership and administration of AIST-Abuja by a Provost, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and two Vice Presidents (VPs)--one for Administrative Affairs and the other for Student Affairs. The provost will be drawn from the faculty, and will be the Vice Chairman of the Academic Senate (discussed below), responsible for the academic programs and curricula of AIST-Abuja. The CFO will have responsibility for all financial matters relating to the campus. The VP (Student Affairs) will be a faculty member and will oversee the dormitory and extracurricular activities of the student body. The VP (Administration) will not be a faculty member and will have broad responsibilities for managing the campus's physical and ICT infrastructure and for the administration of all other aspects (excluding financial and academic matters) of the campus. Each of these key posts will employ a small staff whose mandate, in large part, will involve interacting with AIST-Abuja's departments to ensure uniformity of practice in each department.
Academic Administration will be through the Academic Senate and its delegated bodies at the campus and department/school level. This will enable the individual faculty to decide the details and requirements of each academic program, within a broadly stated objective. Flexibility will be built into the academic administration.
Each school will be headed by a dean who will be the Administrative Head of the Academic Unit and act as a facilitator for the interaction between individual Faculty members and the Campus Administration. These roles will be filled by senior faculty members and will have administrative and financial powers concomitant with the decentralized administration of the institute.
The operations of AIST-Abuja will be funded largely through returns on an endowment. The size and nature of this endowment is discussed below. The Management of AIST-Abuja's endowment will be overseen by a Financial Subcommittee of the BoT. Day-to-day oversight will be the responsibility of the President and the CFO. The endowment will be managed by a Professional Funds Manager. This Manager will be appointed following an international competitive tender process. The ongoing performance of the Endowment Manager will be regularly benchmarked against the Manager's industry peers. The endowment's investment portfolio will reflect the nature of the AIST-Abuja campus. It will largely comprise low-risk instruments that will hold their value and provide a steady income stream to fund the campus's ongoing operations.
NMI is registered as a non-stock, nonprofit entity in Delaware, United States. It was incorporated on June 22, 2005, and is registered in this jurisdiction to allow funds to be raised and collected from entities located in the United States and Europe, to isolate NMI from the risk of property confiscation and other legal meddling, and for the taxation advantages nonprofits receive in this jurisdiction.
AIST-Abuja is a wholly owned subsidiary of NMI. This entity is also registered in Delaware for all of the reasons discussed above. It was also formed on June 22, 2005. AIST-Abuja has formed a subsidiary in Abuja, Nigeria, for the purposes of conducting AIST-Abuja's local operations.
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IMPLEMENTATION
The commitment of a significant level of resources is required to implement the AIST-Abuja vision and have the campus doors opened to its first students by September 2008. The tasks required to implement this vision will be managed as five separate but interdependent work streams. These work streams are fundraising, faculty and administration recruitment, campus design and construction, common entrance exam design and implementation, and student recruitment.
This section of the website will describe how AIST-Abuja's implementation will be managed. It will also outline, at a broad level, the steps required within each work stream to see the AIST-Abuja vision implemented in the timeframe established. An overall implementation schedule is contained below.
The workstreams necessary for the successful implementation of AIST-Abuja will be managed by a secretariat responsible to the NMI BoD and then, once it is established, the AIST-Abuja BoT. This secretariat will be headed by the interim CEO. Once appointed, the AIST-Abuja president will assume this role from the interim CEO. The secretariat will have offices in Abuja, Nigeria (already provided by the government of Nigeria), and will be staffed by people with the necessary skills and experience to implement this business plan.
As noted earlier, AIST-Abuja will require numerous sources of funding. In such situations, fundraising can be problematic because of the prevalence of what is, in effect, a variant of a collective action problem. That is, the success of the initiative is dependent upon the contribution of numerous donors. However, donors will only benefit from the initiative and, therefore, will only contribute once they know that others will contribute too. For donors, therefore, there is no incentive to contribute until others have done so.
As a result of this issue, fundraising will be undertaken in a strategic way. The first step will involve securing a significant commitment from a catalytic donor(s)--a respected institution able to stand behind AIST-Abuja, underwriting and enhancing the project's legitimacy and credibility. WBG, the African Development Bank, the Nigerian government, other African governments, or some combination of these entities are the ideal institutions to play this role.
The second step will involve establishing a second layer of institutions that can assist the catalytic donor or donors in advancing the legitimacy and credibility of AIST-Abuja. Institutions ideally placed to play these substantial supporting roles include the European Union, the African Union, developed country governments, African governments, and other similar organizations.
The final step, which will be conducted concurrently with the second step, will involve approaching the private sector. Private sector participants are likely to contribute by supporting endowed professorships; providing scholarships; or buying naming rights for departments, buildings, or lecture rooms. They will support the AIST-Abuja initiative in a way that contributes to their visibility. Their support, although critical, is likely to come only when the support of the formal sector is secured.
Faculty and administrative staff at all levels need to be recruited.
The President of AIST-Abuja will be appointed following an international search. A committee will be established to oversee this search. The committee will be responsible to the NMI BoD until the AIST-Abuja BoT is established, and will be chaired by the interim CEO.
The President's key leadership staff--the Provost, CFO, and VPs--will also be appointed following an international search. These searches will be overseen by the President. The AIST-Abuja BoT will approve these appointments before they are finally made.
The heads of the three schools of AIST-Abuja will be appointed by the President and the Provost. A committee of peers from outside AIST-Abuja will be established to assist in vetting these appointments. Again, the BoT will have veto over these appointments before they are confirmed.
Faculty will be appointed by the heads of Schools. Again, committees of peers will be developed to assist in vetting the applicants for faculty positions. The President, Provost, and in some cases, the BoT will have veto power in the appointment of Faculty.
The identification of candidates and appointment of faculty at all levels will be assisted by the ISAB and the ASC.
The appointment of Administrative staff will be delegated as far as possible.
The successful design and construction of the AIST-Abuja campus will be heavily dependent on establishing a cooperative relationship with Nigeria's Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Ministry. The AIST-Abuja campus will be situated within Abuja's Technology Village. The success of AIST-Abuja and the ATV are, therefore, mutually dependent. Their development must take this into account. To that end, a project control group comprising representatives from AIST-Abuja, the FCT Ministry, and other relevant organizations will be established to coordinate the development of both AIST-Abuja and the ATV.
The design and construction of the AIST-Abuja campus will be overseen by a separate project control group. This group will be chaired by the interim CEO (and then by the president) and will comprise relevant AIST-Abuja stakeholders as well as some independent experts. This group will be responsible for approving the design brief for the campus and for approving the appointment of architects, consultants, and construction contractors. It will also be accountable for the overall progress, quality, and fitness for the purposes intended of the campus design and construction.
The CEE will be designed and initially implemented by a team from IIT-Bombay. IIT-Bombay has successfully designed and implemented a similar program in India known as the Joint Entrance Examination. It is, therefore, ideally placed to design and implement a similar examination for Africa. IIT-Bombay will be formally contracted to AIST-Abuja to complete the design and initial implementation of the CEE.
Following the design and initial implementation of the CEE, IIT-Bombay will phase out of the ongoing operation of the CEE program and will hand over responsibility for this to the faculty and administrative staff of AIST-Abuja. The obligations of both IIT-Bombay and AIST-Abuja in this handover process will be included as a part of the formal contractual arrangements established between the two parties.
Recruiting quality students is critical to the long-term success of AIST-Abuja. A significant effort, therefore, needs to be made to ensure that motivated and committed students are aware of AIST-Abuja and are encouraged to apply. AIST-Abuja and the CEE process will be promoted and marketed to students and teachers in the secondary schools of SSA. This promotion will include advertising as well as face-to-face meetings and debriefings and will also ensure that the CEE is understood and demystified.
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