African Leadership University (ALU), a newly established tertiary institution offering programmes aimed at developing Africa’s future leaders, yesterday held a grand opening ceremony at its Mauritius campus, African Leadership College. The event, attended by Mauritian Deputy Prime Minister, Xavier-Luc Duval formally marks the start of ALU’s drive to build 25 campuses across Africa that on completion would each host 10 000 students. The institution’s vision is to produce 3 million African leaders in the next 5 decades and distinguish itself as the premier institution for leadership education.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, ALU Chancellor, Graca Machel highlighted the role education institutions play in developing good leaders:
“Building strong education institutions is perhaps Africa’s most urgent priority today. A good education system produces good citizens and good leaders. ALU is an audacious initiative that uses innovation to create a fresh solution to an old problem – creating high calibre leaders who will drive Africa’s development and inspire generations to come. This event marks the beginning of what I believe will be an inspiring African story. As an educationist, I am thrilled to be part of this ground-breaking initiative.”
Other keynote speakers at the event included ALU’s Global Advisory Council Chairman, Dr. Donald Kaberuka, who is immediate former president of the African Development Bank and Prof. Pamela Gillies, Vice Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University, ALU’s accreditation and academic partner. The event was attended by over 300 guests that included global leaders in education, senior executives from ALU’s corporate partners, government representatives from several African countries and leading African academics.
Opening the event, ALU Founder and CEO, Fred Swaniker commented:
“The answer to the challenge of higher education in Africa today is a solution that leverages scarce resources to produces market-ready graduates at scale in a time-efficient manner. Resource constraints in Africa and the imperative to develop transformational leadership across the continent today forces on us an opportunity to re-imagine the traditional university model. ALU is proof that such a solution is within reach. We want to deliver high quality leadership education at scale, and we want to do it outstandingly.”
Over the next 2 days, these leaders will participate in discussions aimed at developing new perspectives in education and talent development that would guide the institution’s pedagogy.
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