ANIE 9th Annual Conference 2018

Theme: Africa in the global higher education landscape: the role of internationalization

Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD)

3rd – 5th October 2018  Nairobi, Kenya

BACKGROUND RATIONALE

The African Network for Internationalization of Education (ANIE) is celebrating 10 years. ANIE was founded on the realization of the crucial role that internationalization has on higher education in Africa. The intention was to set up an organization committed to the advancement of high quality  research, capacity building, information sharing, transnational networking and policy advocacy on the internationalization of higher education in Africa.

Over the past ten years, ANIE has attained useful outputs and progress on in its key focus areas. The membership base has grown, several studies have been undertaken, capacity building and training workshops have been held on different skills. In addition, ANIE has held eight Annual Conferences in different parts of Africa i.e. Eldoret – Kenya; Kampala – Uganda, Abuja – Nigeria; Pretoria –South Africa, Addis Ababa – Ethiopia, Dar-essalaam – Tanzania, Accra – Ghana and Kigali – Rwanda. The ANIE conferences have been Africa’s leading forums for discussions on various aspects of internationalization of higher education in Africa and have attracted several stakeholders including policy makers, higher education leaders, academics, international program officers, practitioners and researchers.

They also provide an opportunity for developing partnerships between universities, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) from different regions in Africa with other parts of the world. Despite the progress that has been made, there are still several challenges to internationalization of education in Africa, many of these intricately bound to the overall higher education situation in Africa.

ANIEs 10th Anniversary and 9th Annual Conference is therefore a moment to reflect on the next steps that the Higher Education sector has to take while at the same time, drawing important lessons from the ground already covered. The event will take place in Nairobi Kenya (3rd-5th October) where the decision to establish ANIE was made in April 2008.

The conference will debate contemporary trends in internationalization of higher education in Africa, the achievements that have been made over the last one decade, main challenges, and the implications of global internationalization of higher education in Africa.

It is also a timely opportunity to reflect on the crucial role of Africa in the global higher education and research landscape, especially towards the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The conference also ties in with the goals of Agenda2063; a blueprint for the growth of all the nations of the African continent for coming five decades. While being guided by these goals, the conference therefore aims to critically consider where African universities find themselves at present in the global higher education landscape. In which ways are the colonial and post-colonial legacies of African higher education playing themselves out in internationalization processes? How has internationalization in Africa helped African universities to claim spaces in the African knowledge domain from their former subservient positions? Who are the narrators of African knowledge and how can internationalization reshape the landscape?