The African Union Executive Council has re-elected Vice-Chancellor of the University of Namibia (UNAM), Prof. Kenneth Matengu, as the President of the Pan-African University (PAU) Council for another three-year term.
Prof. Matengu’s first term was coming to an end in October 2024, thus he will now be at the helm of PAU until October 2027.
The Pan-African University (PAU) was created following the decision of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union during its Fifteenth Ordinary Session in July 2010 in Kampala, Uganda, with the primary aim of creating high-quality continental institutions that promote quality training, research, and innovation within Africa and ensure a steady nurturing of new ideas, as well as a continuous injection of highly skilled human resources to meet the developmental needs of the continent.
With its headquarters in Yaoundé, Cameroon, PAU operates five institutes across the continent, namely:
- The Institute for Basic Sciences, Technology, and Innovation, hosted by the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya
- The Institute for Life and Earth Sciences (including Health and Agriculture), hosted by the University of Ibadan in Nigeria
- The Institute for Governance, Humanities, and Social Sciences, hosted by the University of Yaoundé II in Cameroon
- The Institute for Water and Energy Sciences (including Climate Change), hosted by the University of Tlemcen in Algeria
The Institute for Space Sciences, yet to be operationalized, will be hosted by the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa.
PAU, which only enrolls Master’s and PhD students, receives more than 11,400 candidate applications each year, with only 460 admitted and fully funded by the AU.
