Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) has secured funding, to host a new Centre of Competence in Digital Education (C- CoDE).
The centre, which is under the framework of the Excellence in Africa initiative of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) of Morocco and Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) of Switzerland, is designed to support the transformation of training and educational practices through digital tools and technologies in Tanzania, according to information posted on the Arusha-based institution’s website.
It wasn’t a mean feat for NM-AIST though, as a total of 44 applications from 19 countries had been submitted for the funding.
NM AIST Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic, Research and Innovation, Professor Anthony Mshandete insisted that the institution endeavored to merge gaps that exist due to socio-economic development related challenges.
He further pointed out that the coronavirus pandemic had led to the need of strengthening digital education, to improve the quality of higher education among universities in sub- Saharan Africa.
“It is after Covid-19 that most universities started struggling with how to deliver their lectures through online platforms. We hope that C- CoDE will elevate digital education to professors and lectures thereby enabling our faculty members to catch up with the ever-changing technologies, where the use of cyberspace in teaching and learning is becoming a necessity,” opined the University don.
C-CoDE will be the fifth centre of excellence to be initiated at NM AIST with a view of transforming teaching, learning, research and innovation.
Other centres which are up and running include Centre for Research Advancement, Teaching Excellence and Sustainability in Food and Nutrition Security (CREATES-FNS), Centre of Excellence for ICT in East Africa (CENIT@EA), Data-Driven Innovation incubation Centre (DDI Incubation Centre) and Water Infrastructure and Sustainable Energy Futures (WISE-Futures).
Located in Arusha, NM AIST is one in a network of Pan-African Institutions of Science and Technology located across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
These institutions, which are the brainchild of the late Nelson Mandela, envision training and developing the next generation of African scientists and engineers with a view to impacting profoundly on the continent’s development through the application of Science, Engineering and Technology and Innovation (SETI).
