Overview of the IUCEA

The Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) is a regional inter-governmental organization established in 1980 by the three East African Partner States (Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda) with the aim of facilitating contact between the universities of East Africa, providing a forum for discussion on a wide range of academic and other matters relating to higher education, and helping maintain high and comparable academic standards. The IUCEA exists to facilitate, coordinate and promote sustainable and competitive development of universities in the region by responding to the challenges facing higher education, and helping universities to contribute to meeting national and regional development needs through its various activities. The IUCEA now has a new strategic plan that is aimed at transforming the organization into an effective regional advocate and catalyst for the strategic development and management of higher education in East Africa.


Core Functions

The IUCEA activities are informed by the following three core functions:


 Coordination of inter-university cooperation

To promote the development of mutually beneficial collaboration between member universities, and between them and governments and other organizations, both public and private;

To strengthen regional communications through electronic networks which link member universities together and to relevant sites in East Africa and the world;

To encourage collaboration in regional research and thereby assist universities to develop centres of advanced study and research on a rationalized basis;

To encourage the exchange of staff and students between member universities;

To promote, through relevant activities in the member universities, the meaning and value of East African unity


Facilitation of the strategic development of member universities

To assist and encourage the development of East African higher institutions of learning;

To assist member universities with academic staff development activities;

To assist member universities identify and implement good practices in the management of institutions and the use of resources;

To keep abreast of international developments in higher education and to inform member universities accordingly;

To solicit for funds from local and international sources for strategic inter-institution interventions in higher education;

To collect, classify and disseminate information on higher education and research, particularly in East Africa.


Control and promote the quality of higher education for common regional development

To promote the development and application of a harmonized higher education quality assurance framework in order to ensure that teaching and research achieve and maintain international standards;

To advocate for and assist governments and other appropriate bodies and authorities with the development of strategies for rational development of higher education in East Africa

Vision

The IUCEA becomes an effective regional advocate and catalyst for the strategic development and management of higher education in East Africa.


Mission

The IUCEA shall coordinate, facilitate and encourage stakeholders so as promote strategic, sustainable and competitive development of the higher education sector in East Africa.

A Brief Background

Following the dissolution of the University of East Africa, and the establishment of the University of Dar es Salaam, Makerere University, and the University of Nairobi in 1970, an Inter-University Committee for East Africa was created under the East African Community (EAC) to facilitate collaboration among the three national universities. The committee functioned very well under the Authority of the East African Community and after the collapse of the latter body in 1977, the three Governments fostered the establishment of the present day Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) in 1980 through of a Memorandum of Understanding which set out the objectives, functions, membership, and governance of the Council.

The main objectives of the IUCEA included "facilitating contact between the universities of East Africa, providing a forum for discussion on a wide range of academic and other matters relating to higher education, and helping maintain high and comparable academic standards." In order to achieve the above objectives, the IUCEA identified various functions:

- Sponsorship of academic conferences and specialist committees

- Exchange of staff and students

- Promotion of high academic standards

- Publication of learned journals

- Fostering of joint research projects

- Collaboration with donor organizations on projects which enhance higher education in the region

These functions were very successfully carried out until 1992 when financial support diminished. The main sources of funding ie; The Three East African Governments, started developing unwillingness to pay their full share of IUCEA's annual budget. The little that was received was used to pay the salaries of the secretariat staff, leaving nothing for other programme and project expenditures.

With the revival of the East African Community, the IUCEA was identified as one of the institutions of the former East African Community that had survived the collapse. In order for it to continue fostering future cooperation in the region, a study was sponsored to recommend ways of revitalizing it in order to address the current challenges facing university education in the three East African countries. The aim was to enable the revitalized IUCEA to play a significant role in the development of tertiary education in both the social as well as the natural sciences in the Member States of the East African Community.

The Commonwealth Higher Education Management Service (CHEMS) was appointed to undertake the study in August 1998 and, by April 1999, a report was produced which set up a new chapter for the revitalized IUCEA. The final report recommended, among others, that the revitalized IUCEA:

- Must be compact and cost-effective;

- Should initially focus on a few key functions;

- Must be able to develop projects for donors to support;

- Must be strategic and alert to changing problems.