Prof Nkwi named pioneer president of association of higher education institutions.

Cameroonian scholar, Prof Paul Nchoji Nkwi, has been named the pioneer president of the National Association of Private Higher Education Institutions, NAPHEI, a body put in place to manage the affairs of private higher education institutions.

He was named during the association’s General Assembly held in Yaounde on Friday March 3. Prof Nkwi got the job during the putting in place of the pioneer executive bureau of the newly established association.

Prof Nkwi will be accompanied in the NAPHEI leadership role by more than 12 other members including the Proprietor of the Siantou University Institute, Wantou Siantou Lucien, who will serve as alternate president. Wantou Siantou Lucien, highly respected in academic circles in Cameroon, is the founding brain behind NAPHEI.

Prof Nkwi is one of the most renowned Cameroonian scholars. Before his retirement, he served as lecturer in the University of Yaounde I, the Catholic University Institute of Central Africa and several other institutions.

He also served as visiting professor in several other higher institutions of learning out of Cameroon, including the University of South Carolina in the United States of America and the University of Frankfurt in Germany.

The much-read and travelled academic has also held administrative positions in several institutions of higher education, including the Deputy Vice Chancellor position at the Catholic University of Bamenda.

In 2018, he was appointed as member of the Constitutional Council in a presidential decree.

 

Uniting to deliver quality education

The National Association of Private Higher Education Institutions, NAPHEI, was officially established last Friday March 3. The association has as aim, the promotion of activities of private higher educational institutions in Cameroon with the aim of bettering the sector.

The group, according to officials, was most importantly put in place to ameliorate the quality of education dished out in the higher education sector in the country. This will be notably through the signing of the documents specifying the running of the higher education sector as outlined by the Ministry of Higher Education. The group confirmed their decision to sign the cahier de charge on Friday.

NAPHEI will also be used to push for state supports to better the higher education sector, which, according to officials, is struggling due to the challenging nature of the economy.

“We are looking forward use this platform to put to the Minister of Higher Education and the state of Cameroon, that they should do everything it takes to give subvention to private higher education institutions. We are stakeholders in the higher education sector and are struggling to see how we can better the domain,” one of the members of the newly created association, Awa Emmanuel Khan of the Holy Family Institute for Business and Bio-Medical Sciences, HOBISH, told the press on Friday.

“So, if the government of Cameroon gives us subventions that will be enough for us to be able to manage the private sector because that is the only problem we have. These are some of the things we will be addressing here,” he continued.

The association’s head office will be based in Yaounde.

 

Higher Education Minister lauds initiative, vows to weigh in full support 

Speaking during Friday’s general assembly, Richard Laurent Omgbwa, the representative of the Minister of State, Minister of Higher Education praised the initiative taken by the Cameroonian proprietors to form an association geared towards ameliorating the sector.

“Private higher education institutions are under the control of the Minister of State, Minister of Higher Education. Whenever these institutions carry out or engage in an action with the aim of ameliorating the quality of training and education, the Minister can only but accompany them,” he said in part.

“We are here in the logic of accompanying these institutions who are dedicated in creating an association with the hope of thinking towards bettering the quality of teaching and constitute a platform of dialogue and sharing with government structures. I came here under the instructions of the Minister, to give them the support they need and to wish well,” Omgbwa concluded.

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