KU's Vice Chancellor nominated to ACU

Written By:Rose Kamau,    Posted: Fri, Feb 25, 2011

Kenyatta University Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Olive Mugenda, has been nominated to the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) Council.

Prof. John Wood, the ACU Council Secretary General, said Prof. Mugenda will sit on the Council for the next two years.

The Council, he said, looked forward to working with Prof. Mugenda, who has already been asked to attend her first Council meeting in Hong Kong in April.

The meeting will prepare grounds for the ACU's Executive Heads meeting at the same place.

Writing on behalf of Prof. Wood, Ms Jacqueline Middleton, the ACU Council Administrative Secretary said: "We are delighted to let you know that you have been nominated to serve the ACU Council for a two-year term."

There are only three nominees from Africa to the council: Prof Mugenda, Prof. Ihron Rensburg (University of Johannesburg), and Prof. Ishaq Oloyede (University of Ilorin, Nigeria).

Ms Middleton said the three who represent East, South and West Africa were nominated unopposed.

Prof. Mugenda, who is one of the four Vice-Presidents of the International Association of Universities (IAU), said she was humbled by the honour.

"This is a great honour to Kenyatta University and Kenya," she said.

The Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) was established in 1913 and is the oldest inter-university network in the world.

The ACU has more than 500 member institutions in over 30 Commonwealth countries.

It offers a wide portfolio of services, including policy research and analysis, advocacy, benchmarking and surveys, professional networking, opportunities for student and staff mobility, and access to discounted recruitment advertising and (in low-income countries) journals.

The ACU also manages prestigious scholarship schemes for governments and other funding bodies, and publishes the annual Commonwealth Universities Yearbook, the definitive source of information on higher education institutions in the Commonwealth.