New higher education minister announces priorities

Restoring order to the university calendar and the funding of research and innovation are priorities of El Hadji Abdourahmane Diouf, Senegal’s new minister for higher education, research and innovation, who also promised to ensure that student grants would be paid on time.

Diouf is a member of the government of Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who was elected on 24 March and inaugurated as president of Senegal on 2 April.

Announcing his plans during the handover from his predecessor, Moussa Baldé, Diouf said: “At present, we have academic years which overlap, and it is among our priorities to stabilise the academic year to begin in October to November, and finish in June-July, to return to conventionality so the academic system can continue to perform well,” reported the Agence de Presse Sénégalaise, or APS.

Inviting all parties concerned to collaborate in his plan, he promised to discuss how to achieve “calibration” of the university year, which he said would be “a pledge of credibility” for the technical and financial partners of the state, reported APS.

“Once we have stabilised the teaching, we will cumulatively tackle research and innovation,” APS reported Diouf as saying.

While Senegal had “brilliant researchers who achieve excellent results … most of the time it is research that remains more or less basic, which is not exploited in terms of intellectual property and innovation so Senegal can profit from it,” APS quoted him as saying. “That is a weakness, and we will work to remedy it.”

He said he wanted to be “a minister of higher education of a country which anticipates the future, not a country which sorts out everyday problems”, reported APS.

He said he hoped to maintain a close collaboration with the national private sector in spite of the universities’ autonomy and their franchises, as some academic fields “can have links with the private sector so their results can be applied”, reported APS.

The private sector could reveal needs which were not covered by the university which, for its part, could formulate programmes which would make it easier for students to find employment at the end of their education, said Diouf.

“In the field of innovation, I wish for a Senegal that, in five or 10 years, will be able to produce computers, watches, telephones,” APS reported him as saying. He added that, to achieve this, a ‘substantial budget’ for research would be necessary.

Paying student grants on time

During the handover ceremony, Diouf also made a commitment to ensure that student grants would be paid on time.

Recognising the “academic and social utility” of the state benefit, he said: “I have already been tagged thousands of times by students on social media about grants not yet paid, though I had not yet taken up my post; but these are legitimate demands,” APS reported.

“I have also been a student, and with this grant I could carry out my studies properly,” he said.

He believed the only potential pitfall that could obstruct his plan was “not to have all those involved prepared for total commitment”.

Concerning administrative staff, he underlined to his audience of directors, heads of department and services of the higher education ministry that he would keep watch to ensure conditions of work were respected, reported APS. – Compiled by Jane Marshall.

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