By Aliyu Musa
The Commonwealth Tertiary Education Faculty (CTEF) has appointed Kaduna State University, as its Central Point and Gateway to Commonwealth Africa.
The appointment was contained in a letter signed by the Director, CTEF, Professor Dato’Dr Mobidi Sirat, and addressed to the University Management following a pilot training on Higher Education Leadership and Management conducted by CTEF at the University recently.
“By this, CTEF was confident that KASU has the capacity to roll out such training to other Higher Education Institutions in Commonwealth Africa on behalf of CTEF”, the letter stressed.
The letter of the appointment, which made reference to CTEF’s Term of Reference, which allows for the appointment of pivotal persons and points among researchers or entities within the Universities in the Commonwealth to support such objectives.
The Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Muhammad Tanko said that KASU is now to facilitate, support and expand CTEF’s activities among Universities in Africa; adding that KASU would also bid for research grants and funding for projects and programmes as well as conduct training in the context of commonwealth Africa.
The VC explained that the CTEF was a collaboration between the Ministry of Education, Malaysia and the Commonwealth Secretariat in London.
He said the collaboration was to strengthen the link among Commonwealth countries in the development of tertiary education; adding that the CTEF network partners were expected to generate knowledge and share good practices on tertiary education among Commonwealth countries.
“Under the CTEF’s Strategic Plan 2019 and 2021 and Action Plan 2019 and 2021, CTEF will be working towards strengthening its governance structure and operation arrangement with partners and collaborators in the commonwealth.
“This is to ensure meaningful impact and outcomes of CTEF’s programmes and activities especially in the developing countries of the commonwealth”, the VC said.