Building Engineering Education Capability Across Africa
The African regional workstream of the Systemic Transformation of Engineering Education for Safety and Sustainability project builds institutional and academic capability for engineering education transformation through locally led partnerships across the continent.
Working with universities and engineering education networks in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Africa, the initiative supports academics and institutional leaders to interpret accreditation standards, strengthen curriculum design, and develop confidence in their roles as engineering educators.
The work does not seek to transfer a single model across countries. Instead, it creates facilitated spaces in which institutions can examine their own contexts, identify priorities, and develop locally relevant approaches to curriculum renewal, educator development, safety, sustainability, and professional competency formation.
Our Approach
Curriculum Innovation
We support engineering departments and curriculum teams to:
- interpret accreditation standards within their institutional and national contexts;
- develop coherent and responsive engineering programmes;
- integrate professional competencies, safety, and sustainability across curricula;
- strengthen links between programme purpose, teaching, assessment, and graduate development; and
- move beyond compliance towards meaningful, evidence-informed curriculum transformation.
Engineering Educator Development
Many engineering academics enter higher education with strong disciplinary expertise but limited formal preparation as educators. Through initiatives such as Transformative Teaching in Engineering Education (TTEE), institutional workshops, coaching, and facilitated curriculum processes, the project supports academics to strengthen their confidence and capability in:
- curriculum and assessment design;
- student-centred and practice-based teaching;
- professional competency development;
- educational leadership and facilitation;
- reflective practice; and
- engineering education scholarship.
Regional Communities of Practice
The initiative connects educators and institutions facing similar challenges across different African contexts. These communities provide spaces to share experience, examine practice, develop collaborative projects, and learn from locally grounded innovation.
The intention is to move beyond isolated workshops towards sustained regional relationships that enable institutions to support one another over time.
Locally Led Transformation
The work is based on the principle that sustainable transformation must be owned and led within each context. Regional engagements therefore begin with listening, needs analysis, and co-design rather than predetermined solutions.
By developing local facilitators, strengthening institutional teams, and supporting regional partnerships, the project aims to reduce dependence on external expertise and enable institutions to lead their own long-term transformation.
Current Regional Engagements
KENYA 🇰🇪
Initial concept development and partner engagement have focused on curriculum innovation, academic development, accreditation interpretation, and the creation of locally relevant support for engineering educators.
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16–19 November 2026: Save the date! More details to follow. |
NIGERIA 🇳🇬
Engagements in Nigeria will focus on curriculum transformation, academic development, professional competencies, and strengthening institutional capability for engineering education change.
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October 2026: A collaborative programme focused on curriculum innovation, accreditation, educator development, and locally led institutional transformation. See more event details here. |
Uganda 🇺🇬
The Uganda engagement will combine institutional needs analysis, strategic planning, and educator development to identify priorities and co-design the next phase of collaboration.
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March 2027: A facilitated regional engagement focused on institutional priorities, educator capability, and the co-development of future curriculum and academic development activities. Save the date! More details to follow. |
Looking Ahead
The regional workstream aims to establish a connected African engineering education ecosystem in which institutions are able to learn with and from one another while responding to their own national, institutional, and disciplinary contexts.
By building local capability, strengthening regional partnerships, and supporting institutions to lead their own transformation, the project seeks to contribute to safer, more sustainable, and more responsive engineering education across Africa.
Join the EERN-Africa Community!
The Engineering Education Research Network for Africa (EERN-Africa) connects engineering educators, researchers, and institutional leaders across the continent through monthly online conversations, knowledge-sharing, and collaborative opportunities.
These sessions provide an ongoing space to exchange experiences, discuss emerging engineering education challenges, share locally grounded practices, and develop connections beyond the project’s country-based engagements.
Academics and partners interested in joining the network and receiving information about upcoming sessions can contact Dr Esther Matemba (esthersayula@gmail.com) or Prof Lelanie Smith (Lelanie.Smith@up.ac.za).