Work and Policy Areas

Access to Success Print Email this page

Project Description

The Access to Success project (2008-2010), funded by the Erasmus Mundus programme of the European Union, aimed at raising awareness of access and retention issues in higher education in Africa and Europe, and at exploring how higher education institutions in both regions are coping with the changing demands of their specific socio-economic environments. By doing so, the project also intended to contribute to a wider discussion on effective inter-institutional cooperation between Europe and Africa, in particular with regards to student and staff mobility schemes, capacity building partnerships and government/donor support.

The messages of the project have been captured in the White Paper of project recommendations: Africa-Europe Higher Education Cooperation for Development: meeting regional and global challenges. The White Paper contains multi-actor recommendations for taking forward the Europe-Africa higher education cooperation agenda.

Project activities

The project included:

• Parallel institutional surveys on access and retention in higher education conducted in 2009 across a sample of 16 African and 19 European countries. The surveys were supplemented with three student focus groups on access and mobility, one in Europe led by the European Students’ Union and two in Africa led by the All-Africa Students’ Union and the Erasmus Mundus Alumni Association.
• A first Europe-Africa rectors’ dialogue in Addis Ababa, 17 November 2009, that examined issues of common interest to university leadership. View the Summary Report
• Three dialogue-intensive workshops involving university leadership and faculty, donors and government agencies, students and regional government bodies. The workshops explored the following themes:
  
  
  • Access and Retention: Comparing best practice between Europe and Africa (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 18-20 November 2009). Sharing university good practice in confronting problems of access and retention in both Africa and Europe, based on the project survey results.
  • Towards a coordinated vision of Europe-Africa Higher Education Partnerships: Supporting Institutional capacity building in Africa (Oslo, Norway, 24-25 February 2010). This workshop explored programmes that structure institutional cooperation and capacity building between Africa and Europe. It also examined the theme of better donor coordination in research and higher education capacity building.
  • Inter and intra regional academic mobility in Europe and Africa (Accra, Ghana 3-4 May 2010). The workshop examined intra-regional mobility (within Europe and within Africa) as a potential avenue for higher education integration and inter-regional mobility (between Africa and Europe), the realities of brain drain and the drive for increased brain circulation.

Project recommendations

During the final dissemination conference that took place in Brussels, Belgium, on 28 September 2010, the project outcomes presented in the White Paper of Project Recommendations were discussed with policy makers, cooperation agencies and the university community.

To view the White Paper, available in English and French, click here.

Implementing Partners

European University Association (EUA)
Association of African Universities (AAU)
European Access Network (EAN)
European Students' Union (ESU)
Norwegian Association of Higher Education Institutions (UHR)
Association of Flemish Universities - Department of University Cooperation for Development (VLIR-UOS)

Project Publications

Africa-European higher education cooperation for development: Meeting regional and global challenges
White Paper

Access to Sucess: Fostering trust and exchange between Europe and Africa
Project Compendium

Project follow-up

The European University Association will follow up the Access to Success project with two projects focusing on Europe-Africa university cooperation:

Europe-Africa Quality Connect: Building Institutional Capacity through Partnership (Europe-Africa QA Connect) intends to share the Institutional Evaluation Programme (IEP) approach with five African universities in different regions of sub-Saharan Africa as a trial application. Regional associations in Africa committed to promoting institutional development will contribute to refining the methodology of five institutional pilot evaluations. The evaluation visits, which form part of the programme and are conducted by a team of international experts, will be enhanced through a number of workshops (WS).

Cooperation on Doctoral Education between Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe (CODOC) will study trends in doctoral education in different developing regions of the world and provide occasions for dialogue and networking in order to foster stronger doctoral education partnerships between Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. Cross-border collaboration in doctoral education has intensified and new and innovative forms of delivery, such as joint doctoral degrees, have gained strategic attention from many universities. Universities in developing countries can use collaborations to build capacity and to get access to know-how, while European universities benefit from partner universities in specific locations of research interest, fruitful exchange of students, opportunities to jointly conceive curricula that are of greater international relevance, exchange of staff, etc.

Contact

Elizabeth Colucci
Project Officer