Aga Khan varsity in Sh91bn plan

The Aga Khan University has announced a Sh91 billion investment in education.

At the same time, the Aga Khan – the hereditary spiritual leader of Shia Ismaili Muslims– yesterday said Africa must move rapidly to establish and reinforce a healthy civil society to help improve quality of life.

The Sh91 billion investment (1 billion US dollars), to be realised over 15 years, will see the establishment of new campuses and graduate schools in East Africa, with Sh63.7 billion (700 million US dollars ) going to Tanzania.

Speaking when he officiated the university’s graduation ceremony in Dar-es-Salaam, the Aga Khan said both the developed and developing worlds need quality civil society organisations to confront the future.

He said vibrant and ethical civil society groups are critical if the quality of human life across the world is to be improved.
“More and more, I am convinced that the key to improving quality of human life – both in places that are gifted with good governments and in places that are not so fortunate, is the quality of what I describe as civil society,” he said.

The Ismaili Imam said the Aga Khan University, as it advances and shares new knowledge, will play a central role in the growing of a quality civil society. The university on Monday became the first foreign one to be given a charter by the Tanzanian government.

The Aga Khan said Tanzania was a special place for AKU since his grandfather, while serving as Imam of the Ismaili Muslim community, made education a top priority and started the first Aga Khan School in Africa over 110 years ago in Bagamoyo.

NEW CAMPUS

Over the last 15 years, AKU has graduated 12,000 students including nearly 2,000 nurses and 3,000 teachers.
Over the last one year, it has trained 1,000 secondary school head teachers.

A new campus is being built in Arusha to be ready in four years to house the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, two graduate schools, a technology and research park, and a library.

AKU president Firoz Rasul said the university will this year open a graduate school of media and communications in Nairobi.
Other graduate schools are in the pipeline, specifically designed to advance a healthy civil society.

They include schools of Leadership and Management; hospitality, leisure and tourism; architecture and human settlements; Government, civil society and public policy; economic growth and development; law; and education.

In Dar-es-Salaam, a new campus will house the Institute of Educational Development.