About Us

– Favourable Policy Environment: The AAU will lead dialogue and policy debates around key issues in African higher education and promote the role of universities in sustainable development.
– Strengthening Institutional Capacity of Stakeholders: The AAU will strengthen the institutional capacity of key stakeholders.
– Promoting Harmonization, Standardization for Competitiveness and Collaboration: The AAU will promote harmonization and standardization to enhance competitiveness, inter-institutional collaboration, and networking.
– Resource Mobilization for Sustainability: The AAU will explore other mechanisms for sustainable financing.

Membership of the AAU is open to universities and other institutions of higher education in Africa, as well as organisations and networks whose members are universities or institutions which engage in supporting universities. At the time of its inauguration, there were forty-six (46) institutions of higher learning in Africa that qualified for membership, 34 were present at the inauguration and membership rose to 38 in 1968. All the 46 institutions had become members of the AAU five years after its formation.
The 34 pioneer institutions at its inauguration were:

1. University of Algiers, Algeria
2. Université Officielle de Bujumbura (Université du Burundi), Burundi
3. Université Fédéral du Cameroun (Université de Yaoundé), Cameroon
4. Université Nationale du Zaire (made up of Official University of Lubumbashi and Free University of Kisangani), Congo DR
5. University of Lovanium, Kinshasa, Congo DR
6. Ain Shams University, Egypt
7. Al-Azhar University, Egypt
8. Alexandria University, Egypt
9. University of Cairo, Egypt
10. University College of Addis Ababa (Haile Selassie I University/Addis Ababa University), Ethiopia
11. Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
12. University of Cape Coast, Ghana
13. University of Ghana, Ghana
14. University of Abidjan, Ivory Coast
15. University of College, Nairobi, Kenya
16. Cuttington College (Cuttington University), Liberia
17. University of Liberia, Liberia
18. University of Libya (later divided to University of Benghazi and University of Tripoli), Libya
19. Universite de Madagascar (University of Antananarivo), Madagascar
20. Mohammed V University (University of Rabat), Morocco
21. The University of al-Qarawiyyin, Morocco
22. Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria
23. University of Ibadan, Nigeria
24. University of Ife (Obafemi Awolowo University), Nigeria
25. University of Lagos, Nigeria
26. University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
27. Universite Nationale du Rwanda, Rwanda
28. Universite de Dakar (Université Cheikh Anta Diop), Sénégal
29. Fourah Bay College (University of Sierra Leone), Sierra Leone
30. Njala University, Sierra Leone
31. University of Khartoum, Sudan
32. University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
33. Universite de Tunis, Tunisia
34. Makerere University, Uganda