Millions to benefit from collaboration between universities

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Hope@Africa, a collaboration between six leading African universities, and Hope International, a collaboration between Stellenbosch University (SU) and four Swedish universities, will be officially launched in Stellenbosch on Thursday 20 March.

The collaboration will see the various partners promote human development and tackle major societal challenges - in Africa and in the rest of the world. Chief among these is the fact that according to UNESCO Africa requires 2 million new teachers by 2015. There is also an urgent need to provide training for millions of current teachers who are either under or unqualified.

To extend the reach and richness of learning opportunities beyond the physical classroom, the Hope@Africa universities are set to reach out to teachers through the innovative use of technology and by using the strength of their combined telematic platforms.

Founding members of Hope@Africa are the University of Botswana, the University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Kenyatta University (Kenya), Makerere University (Uganda), the University of Nairobi (Kenya), the University of Namibia, and Stellenbosch University (South Africa).

The overall objective of the Hope International Network is to further collaborate within higher education towards an increase in knowledge and awareness of the major challenges facing the global community.

Founding members of Hope International are Stellenbosch University (SU) in South Africa, and Dalarna University, Gothenburg University, Linnaeus University and Malmo University in Sweden. The members bring together higher education institutions to collaborate on ways to contribute to the long-term achievement of global development goals.