New president of CAMES outlines his plans

Professor Georges Moyen, the new president of CAMES – the francophone Council for African and Malagasy Higher Education – has spelt out his plans for the 19-member council.

Moyen is higher education minister of the Congo Republic, and a former medical faculty dean, then rector of Marien Ngouabi University in Brazzaville.

CAMES members are Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea-Conakry, Madagascar (currently withdrawn), Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal and Togo.

Moyen explained his four priorities to Les Dépêches de Brazzaville following the 31st session of CAMES ministers in Libreville, Gabon, where members elected him as president for the next two years.

First was harmonisation within the CAMES area of the ‘LMD’ – licence-master-doctorat – as the system of three, five and eight years’ higher education, based on Europe’s Bologna process, is known in French.

Moyen said the LMD established in 2005 in CEMAC, the six countries of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa, was developing at different speeds in some countries such as Cameroon, Gabon and the Republic of Congo, reported Les Dépêches de Brazzaville.

His second priority concerned private higher education.

Taking his own country Republic of Congo as an example, he said he had suspended the right of certain private institutions in Brazzaville to award masters degrees, because he doubted the quality of those teachers who were qualified with only a first degree.

“What kind of masters degree is being awarded to young Congolese? The governing role of the state obliged me to end these masters. One cannot teach a masters if one is not a master, professor or senior lecturer,” he said.

The third area was quality assurance in higher education, with consideration about the work carried out by all concerned, the type of education for each course and its aims, reported Les Dépêches de Brazzaville.

Moyen told the agency he wanted the rules defined by UNESCO, that the CAMES was trying to set up, to ensure transparency to attract more partners, whether financial or other states.

Fourth, Moyen said he wanted to pave the way for the return to CAMES of Madagascar, which had withdrawn from the council after not fulfilling necessary criteria, which had led to rejection of its candidates and ‘unacceptable’ dossiers.

Moyen said the Madagascan authorities had finally decided they wanted to return to CAMES.

“So I, in my new mission, shall prepare for a team led by the general secretary to visit Madagascar to explain to our friends what is happening, and the advantage of following the rules enacted by CAMES,” he told Les Dépêches de Brazzaville.

* This article is drawn from local media. University World News cannot vouch for the accuracy of the original reports.