Institutional Assessment of the Association of African Universities (AAU) 28th of June 2005 INSTITUTIONAL ASSESSMENT OF THE ASSOCIATION OF AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES (AAU) Arne Svensson Mohamed Salih Final Report Professional Management AB Illervägen 27, SE-187 35 Täby, Sweden, Phone +46 8 792 38 28, fax +46 8 768 19 29, e-mail [email protected] website www.professionalmanagement.se Institutional Assessment of the Association of African Universities (AAU) 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY................................................................................................................................................6 1.1 SUMMARY.....................................................................................................................................................................6 1.2 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................9 1.2.1 Elements of AAU restructuring............................................................................................................................9 1.2.2 Restructuring outcomes...................................................................................................................................... 14 1.2.3 Miscellaneous...................................................................................................................................................... 22 2 BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................................................................... 24 2.1 INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................................24 2.2 AAU MAJOR PROGRAMMES AND PROJECTS PER MAY 2005..............................................................................24 2.3 DONOR SUPPORT.........................................................................................................................................................27 2.3.1 Support from Sida/SAREC....................................................................................................................................... 27 2.3.2 Support from DGIS ................................................................................................................................................... 28 2.4 TERMS OF REFERENCE...............................................................................................................................................28 2.5 THE ASSESSMENT TEAM...........................................................................................................................................29 2.6 ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY..................................................................................................................................30 2.7 REPORTING..................................................................................................................................................................32 3 ELEMENTS OF AAU INSTITUTIONAL AND FINANCIAL RESTRUCTURING................................... 33 3.1 AAU INSTITUTIONAL RESTRUCTURING..................................................................................................................33 3.2 RESPONDING TO SIDA/SAREC ACTION PLAN.......................................................................................................39 3.3 FINANCIAL RESTRUCTURING....................................................................................................................................43 3.3.1 Changes in income and expenditure...................................................................................................................... 43 3.3.2 Administration costs................................................................................................................................................. 47 4 RESTRUCTURING OUTCOMES .............................................................................................................................. 50 4.1 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT COMPETENCES..............................................................................................................50 4.2 INTERNAL FINANCIAL CONTROLS, ACCOUNTS AND AUDIT VERIFICATION.........................................................53 4.2.1 AAU Accounting Policies and Procedures Manual ............................................................................................ 53 4.2.2 Accounting procedures and internal control........................................................................................................ 56 4.2.3 External audit............................................................................................................................................................ 58 4.2.4 Fixed assets................................................................................................................................................................ 58 4.3 THE PLANNING PROCESS ...........................................................................................................................................59 4.4 REPORTING.................................................................................................................................................................60 4.5 MONITORING AND EVALUATION.............................................................................................................................61 4.6 GENDER AND HIGHER EDUCATION..........................................................................................................................63 4.7 ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT STYLE.....................................................................................64 4.8 MEMBERSHIP FEES AND LEVELS OF COST -SHARING..............................................................................................67 4.9 PUBLICATION TYPES AND QUALITY........................................................................................................................70 4.10 BENCHMARKING.........................................................................................................................................................74 5 MISCELLANEOUS ......................................................................................................................................................... 78 5.1 SERVICES MARKETING..............................................................................................................................................78 5.2 DATABASE OF AFRICAN THESES AND DISSERTATIONS (DATAD).....................................................................79 Institutional Assessment of the Association of African Universities (AAU) 3 LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Support from Sida/SAREC...........................................................................................27 Table 2.2: Amounts received from DGIS towards AAU activities 1999 to-date ..........................28 Table 2.3: Results verification approaches in response to purpose and scope of the assessment .31 Table 3.1: Actions Taken by AAU in response to Sida’s Action Plan..........................................40 Table 3.2: Income and expenditure 2003/2004 compared with 2002/2003...................................47 Table 3.3: Study Programme on Higher Education Management in Africa July 03 – June 04.....48 Table 4.1: Membership subscription arrears as at December, 2004 ..............................................68 Table 4.2: Governance Structure, special features, sources of income and membership of AAU, AArU and ACU .............................................................................................................................75 LIST OF FIGURES Fig 3.1: Income and Expenditure 2001-2005 (July to June)..........................................................44 Fig 3.2: Reserves (July to June).....................................................................................................44 Fig 3.3: AAU Subscriptions Trends 2001-2004 (July to June) .....................................................45 Fig 3.4: Total Grants Received 2001-2004 (July to June) .............................................................45 Fig 3.5: Other Income (July to June) .............................................................................................46 Fig 3.6: Expenditure (July to June)................................................................................................46 ANNEXES 1. Terms of Reference 2. Itinerary 3. Persons interviewed or contacted 4. Documentation 5. Excerpts from AAU Strategic Plan (2003 – 2010) 6. Sida/SAREC Action Plan 2002 7. AAU Secretariat’s Organogram and Staff Establishment 8. AAU List of Publications 2001 – 2004 9. Staff Exchange Programme 2001-2005 Institutional Assessment of the Association of African Universities (AAU) 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AAU Association of African Universities AArU Association of Arab Universities ACBF African Capacity Building Foundation ACE American Council on Education ACP African, Caribbean Pacific ACU Association of Commonwealth Universities ADB African Development Bank ADEA Association for the Development of Education in Africa AESEDA Alliance for Earth Science, Engineering and Development AHEA African Higher Education Area AU African Union AUCC Association of Universities and Colleges