This text is part of the special Scientific Francophonie notebook
Portrait of a much-anticipated project, particularly on the African continent, where it will make it possible to reach more students and encourage the sharing of expertise.
In recent years, traditional African universities have struggled to respond to the increase in the student population. “In Africa, around 20% of a certain age group who wishes to study has access to university, compared to 70% in Europe, and this is partly because there is a shortage of teachers,” explains Pierre-Jean. Loiret, vice-rector of the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF), which oversees the French-speaking Network of Virtual Universities (RéFUV), officially launched at the beginning of the month in Quebec, as part of the 3are Conference of the Scientific Francophonie. “The pandemic has accelerated the development of virtual universities in Africa, but the need was there before,” adds Mr. Loiret.
In addition to responding to the problem of overstaffing in traditional universities, the creation of French-speaking virtual universities in Africa, which the Network will facilitate, allows teaching at a lower cost: “virtual teaching is mainly given remotely and the few courses in attendance are given in student reception centers whose infrastructures are much less expensive than those of traditional universities,” mentions Mr. Loiret. This new Network therefore fully resonates with the mission of the AUF, which is to support French-speaking university education establishments in their actions for a scientific Francophonie engaged economically, socially and culturally.
Easy sharing of expertise
Together, eight African universities sought support from the AUF to develop the new Network, which also aims to support knowledge sharing and innovate in virtual pedagogy. “The Cheikh Hamidou Kane Digital University of Senegal serves 60,000 students. It’s huge and the success rates are the same as in traditional universities, explains Mr. Loiret. This is an example of a university whose practices can certainly be beneficial to other establishments. » If the expertise for the development of virtual universities is recognized in Africa, “it is the linking of skills which is lacking, which is what the RéFUV will be used for, among other things”, underlines the vice-president of the AUF. For example, the National Center for Distance Education of Madagascar (CNTEMAD), founded in 1992, offers correspondence courses and wishes to make a digital shift. “The modernization of this university towards virtual teaching can be done much more easily thanks to the Network, since the establishment can easily benefit from the knowledge of other digital universities,” maintains Mr. Loiret.
A call to join the RéFUV will be launched across the French-speaking world shortly and “the Network should be concretely active from around the summer of 2024,” specifies the vice-president. From there, it will be able to fully deploy its reasons for being”, that is to say, to reflect on the effectiveness of pedagogical practices of distance education, to allow the exchange of good governance practices of this type teaching, encourage the association between French-speaking virtual universities to create new training courses and pool certain resources. “It is basically a question of mobilizing the expertise already present to enable easier sharing,” concludes the vice-president.
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