About

The decision to create the AAU was taken at a meeting of Heads of African Institutions of Higher Education held for this purpose at the University of Khartoum, Sudan in September 1963. The International Association of Universities assisted in planning and making administrative arrangements for this meeting and was invited to cooperate with the Interim Committee that was set up to draft a constitution for the AAU.

A founding conference attended by the Heads or Senior representatives of 34 African Universities was held at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco on 12th November 1967. At this meeting the constitution was adopted and the first officers and members of the AAU Executive Board were elected.

The second General Conference of the AAU was held at Lovanium University in Kinshasa in November 1969 and new officers and a new Executive Board were elected to take office in 1970. The Government of Ghana subsequently won the bid to host the AAU – and the AAU Secretariat has been hosted in Ghana since 1970. With an initial membership of 34, the Association now has over 360 members, cutting across the language and other divides.

The Association has provided a platform for research, reflection, consultation, debates, co-operation and collaboration on issues pertaining to higher education. It has provided a range of services to its members and served African higher education in a variety of ways. It has established and increased its role in the five sub-regions of Africa and is thus able, at reasonable notice, to assemble teams of experts in relevant fields from the sub-regions.

The Association possesses a unique capacity to convene higher education institutional leaders and policy-makers from all parts of the continent and on key issues related to African higher education and development, as demonstrated in the WTO/GATS workshop held in Ghana in April 2004. In addition, the Association provides leadership in the identification of emerging issues and support for debating them and facilitating appropriate follow-up action by its members, partners and other stakeholders.

Membership of the AAU is open to universities and other institutions of higher education in Africa, as well as organisations and networks whose members are universities or institutions which engage in supporting universities. At the time of its inauguration, there were forty-six (46) institutions of higher learning in Africa that qualified for membership, 34 were present at the inauguration and membership rose to 38 in 1968. All the 46 institutions had become members of the AAU five years after its formation.
The 34 pioneer institutions at its inauguration were:

1. University of Algiers, Algeria
2. Université Officielle de Bujumbura (Université du Burundi), Burundi
3. Université Fédéral du Cameroun (Université de Yaoundé), Cameroon
4. Université Nationale du Zaire (made up of Official University of Lubumbashi and Free University of Kisangani), Congo DR
5. University of Lovanium, Kinshasa, Congo DR
6. Ain Shams University, Egypt
7. Al-Azhar University, Egypt
8. Alexandria University, Egypt
9. University of Cairo, Egypt
10. University College of Addis Ababa (Haile Selassie I University/Addis Ababa University), Ethiopia
11. Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
12. University of Cape Coast, Ghana
13. University of Ghana, Ghana
14. University of Abidjan, Ivory Coast
15. University of College, Nairobi, Kenya
16. Cuttington College (Cuttington University), Liberia
17. University of Liberia, Liberia
18. University of Libya (later divided to University of Benghazi and University of Tripoli), Libya
19. Universite de Madagascar (University of Antananarivo), Madagascar
20. Mohammed V University (University of Rabat), Morocco
21. The University of al-Qarawiyyin, Morocco
22. Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria
23. University of Ibadan, Nigeria
24. University of Ife (Obafemi Awolowo University), Nigeria
25. University of Lagos, Nigeria
26. University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
27. Universite Nationale du Rwanda, Rwanda
28. Universite de Dakar (Université Cheikh Anta Diop), Sénégal
29. Fourah Bay College (University of Sierra Leone), Sierra Leone
30. Njala University, Sierra Leone
31. University of Khartoum, Sudan
32. University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
33. Universite de Tunis, Tunisia
34. Makerere University, Uganda