Education and Regional Integration
A common framework for education policy and practice will help to foster collaboration and hasten progress towards regional convergence on competencies, standards and quality. This will make it possible for students from each of the five East African countries to undertake post-secondary and graduate study elsewhere in the EAC region, strengthening social and cultural ties between the member states, building the pool of highly qualified personnel in the region, and promoting a sense of East African identity.
Urgent policy research and practice questions include: How should higher education policy and practice be driven nationally and within the EAC region, given the rapidly changing technology, labour market, and socio-economic environment?
Contribution to research-based, policy-oriented measures will include:
Survey and assessment of existing data and information.
Comparative research on disparity and potential for coherence in standards and competencies in higher education and vocational training.
Framing and promoting dialogue on a coherent framework of competency indicators and quality/standards benchmarks.
Providing policy and institutional support to partnerships among EAC institutions of higher education to set up joint study programmes and mobility of students and faculty (and possibly joint double degrees, to capitalise on specialty strengths in each institution).
