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SECURING
THE LINCHPIN
ICT FOR TEACHING, LEARNING, AND RESEARCH ICT PROFILES The six Partnership
countries run the gamut in terms of their ICT capacity, as do
the universities represented at the meeting. Some are located
in countries with considerable ICT infrastructure, such as South
Africa, while the Nigerian universities are just now recovering
from decades of neglect. Universities in all of the Partnership
countries have been at the forefront of ICT development and utilization
in their countries. Some historical information may be in order
here: In 1995, the Balme Library of the University of Ghana, Legon, became responsible for a nationwide Fidonet store-and-forward email system, which was funded through the PADIS. This network was one of the first in Ghana.2 Mozambique Mozambique became the second country in sub-Saharan Africa outside of South Africa to achieve full Internet connectivity when Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) went online in 1995 with a connection to Rhodes University in South Africa. UEM was the only Internet Service Provider (ISP) in Mozambique for several years. UEM has also been closely involved with the government in establishing a national ICT policy; university staff were responsible for workshops in every province in Mozambique to explain the draft policy and to get input from local communities. UEM has been at the forefront of Mozambique’s telecenter movement as well.3 Nigeria The history of Internet in Nigeria is spotty and anecdotal, but two or three Nigerian universities stand out as trailblazers. As early as 1990, McMaster University in Canada helped the University of Ilorin Faculty of Health Sciences obtain email capability. The method was simple, and it worked—twice a week someone from McMaster called the Ilorin Computer Centre to establish voice contact, after which data transfer took place. Thus, the Faculty of Health Sciences was able to send and receive email messages.4 In addition, one of the first broadbased email points established in Nigeria was through the Yaba College of Technology in 1993, thus providing users willing to dial in to Yaba with email access. South Africa The first “ping,” i.e., the first time a true online Internet connection was established, was in 1992 at Rhodes University. Rhodes University is also noteworthy because it was the first gateway for UNINET, South Africa’s research and academic network, and because it also permitted universities in southern Africa to use the gateway at no cost.5 Tanzania In Tanzania, the first email system was established at the University of Dar es Salaam Medical College through HealthNet; a second email node was placed on the main campus through the same IDRC-funded project that supported Makerere University’s early email efforts. The university then started to provide email services to the university community, the government, and other users. This was followed by full Internet in 1995. Uganda Email Email had its start in Uganda in 1991, when Makerere University joined a project supported by IDRC to provide FIDONET email capability to university computer centers in five African countries. MUKLANET served e mail users inside and outside of the university community until other forms of access became available in Uganda.6
Although
universities in the Partnership countries have been ICT leaders
in many ways, they have not always played roles in the articulation
of national ICT planning. Some have, of course, and Mozambique
stands out in this regard.Because this is such a critical issue
to national development, the place of universities at the “policy-making
table” came up for sustained analysis several times during
the workshop and is discussed in more detail in the next chapter. All participants were asked to prepare background material on the status of ICT in their countries, universities and consortia before the meeting. (Go to Appendix Three for a list of topics that each university was asked to provide.) The tables below are a consolidation of the information participants provided together with data from the Internet Connectivity Web site maintained by Mike Jensen and the Africa Information Society Initiative (AISI). The sections on the South African Research Network, AAU, and IUCEA are also based on materials participants prepared for the meeting. A selection of these reports will be found on the Partnership Web site. AISI’s home page on national ICT status and planning is located at http://www.uneca.org/aisi/nici/Default.htm. The Jensen site is at http://www2.sn.apc.org/africa/. ICT at the National Level
With the exception of South Africa, ICT implementation in Partnership countries began before strategic plans were written. In most instances, email was the first development, followed by other applications. Of the Partnership universities, Eduardo Mondlane University took the lead, followed soon thereafter by the University of Dar es Salaam. Makerere University learned from the experience of the first two. In turn, the University of Namibia has benefited from Makerere. Informal networks are growing, with one university helping the other. The table below summarizes the ICT status of universities participating in the workshop.
South Africa is not
included in this table because South African universities benefit
from full connectivity through the Tertiary Education Network
(http://www.tenet.ac.za).
The origins and birth of TENET are discussed in more detail below. Because of the size of Nigeria's higher education system, which is comparable to that of South Africa, we asked our Nigerian colleagues to provide a brief overview of Internet capacity for the sector. Among their points were:
ICT Snapshots from Nigeria
Photo by Ality Photo Prof
Photos below by Len Liverpool
The South African Research Network The development of academic networking in South Africa was not without its vicissitudes. During the period from 1985-1987, a few individual universities, most notably Rhodes, began to experiment with dial-up email and networking on a limited basis. Rhodes University also helped other universities in southern Africa, such as Eduardo Mondlane University and the University of Malawi, to go online by serving as their Internet gateway. In 1987 South Africa's Foundation for Research and Development (FRD) provided the initial seed money and infrastructure to establish a research and academic network called UNINET. UNINET served the country's tertiary sector until its responsibilities were taken over by the Tertiary Education NETwork (TENET) in 2001.
UNINET was run as a cooperative effort among South Africa's higher education institutions (both universities and technikons), without direct government funding. The FRD contributed 10 percent of its budget, and UNINET members put in the remainder. Throughout its existence, inadequate funding to buy sufficient bandwidth hampered UNINET's ability to provide services. This was exacerbated by the lack of support from Telkom, South Africa's telecommunication's giant.
The planning process for creating TENET built on UNINET's strengths and learned from its weaknesses. Vice chancellors, senior academic administrators, including librarians, assumed ownership of the TENET concept from the outset. Donors assisted grantee universities in establishing a strong and knowledgeable team to negotiate better rates with Telkom. The universities explained to Telkm that they stood the risk of losing further donor funding if bandwidth did not improve because the donors would only provide bandwidth-intensive resources if they could be used. Through the university consortium’s education of Telkom, Telkom came to understand that favorable treatment for higher education was in the country’s best interest and that it would not lose money in the arrangement. Bandwidth costs would come down, but the amount of bandwidth purchased would increase. Telkom’s profit margin was therefore not adversely affected by the new arrangement. Thus, although the negotiations required a considerable time investment, Telkom and the universities now have a good working relationship. Association of African Universities The Association of African Universities (AAU) is a pan-African organization that was founded in 1967 and is located in Accra. It promotes cooperation between universities in Africa and between African universities and the international academic community. More than 100 universities belong to the AAU. The AAU has recognized the importance of ICT to education for many years and has carried out the following ICT related activities:
DATAD
The Database of African Theses and Dissertations is an AAU “core program.” Established in 2000, DATAD is a management and dissemination tool for theses and dissertations completed in African universities. There are currently 11 participating institutions; more will be added in phase two of the project. Each DATAD record contains a complete citation, including a full abstract, keywords, and local terms. Over 12,000 records have been entered thus far. DATAD is unique—it is African and the records are more detailed than any other bibliographic database of theses and dissertations. DATAD is available online and on CD-ROM for African universities in slow bandwidth countries. You will find more information on DATAD on the AAU home page. See http://www.aau.org/datad/. Inter-University Council of East Africa The Inter-University Council of East Africa (IUCEA) was established in 1970 with the mandate of fostering higher education within the East African Community (EAC). Its activities were adversely affected, however, following the collapse of the EAC in the late seventies. IUCEA was revitalized in 1998; it works with institutions of higher learning in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, and is located in Kampala. The process of recreating IUCEA included a thorough analysis of its ICT requirements and those of its members. As a first step, IUCEA carried out an internal ICT needs assessment, which resulted in creating a local area network, establishing a viable email system, and creating a home page. Having met its technology needs, IUCEA began to examine the needs of its member universities. It carried out a pilot survey between December 2001 and February 2002 at selected universities to assess their ICT infrastructure and future requirements. Two universities in each member counry—Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda—were selected. IUCEA expects to continue and to expand upon this work. 2. Christine Kisiedu tells the strory of "Bringing e-mail to Ghana" in Rowing Upstream. 3. The Mozambique story is told by Venancio Massingue and by Narciso Matos in Rowing Upstream. 4. Omenogo Meijabi, “The Electronic Mail Link between the University of Ilorin and McMaster University,” Electronic Networking in Africa: Workshop on Science and Technology Communication Networks in Africa. Nairobi, Kenya, August 27-29, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, DC, 1992. 5. See Mike Lawrie, "UNINET-ZA Networking Experience from the Beginning until December 1993” in Electronic Networking for West African Universities, Association of African Universities/American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, DC, 1994. In addition, go to his story in Rowing Upstream: http://www.piac.org/rowing_upstream/chapter7/ch7simple.html 6. The MUKLANET story is told in Rowing Upstream. 7. Perhaps because Mozambique began to develop Internet capacity so early, there are voluminous resources about ICT development in that country. In addition to the sources cited above, the government of Mozambique has mounted its own site on national policy: http://www.infopool.gov.mz/. 8. Namibia is included in this table because two resource people from the University of Namibia attended the meeting. 9. Go to http://www2frd.ac.za/uninet/history for a history of the development from UNINET to TENET. 10. See http://www.moct.go.tz/ict/, Tanzania’s ICT Task Force Home Page, to read a copy of the draft ICT policy. (Professor Mathew Luhanga, Vice Chancellor of the University of Dar es Salaam and a telecommunications engineer, is chair of the Task Force. 11. The United Nations Development Program in Kampala maintains an ICT home page, where you can find the draft ICT policy. It is at: http://www.undp.or.ug/ict.htm.
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