African School of Economics (ASE)the Pan-African university developing the frontiers of Africa’s next generation of scholars, researchers, policymakers and entrepreneurs to create homegrown solutions to African challenges has officially announced its expansion to Zanzibar.
It marks the university’s first location in East Africa, with plans for a state-of-the-art campus for African students and world-class faculty. ASE will also become the latest high-profile addition to the Silicon Zanzibar initiative as it embarks on the next phase of its expansion plan to become the pan-African center for higher education.
Digging deeper
In collaboration with renowned educational institutions such as Princeton University and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, ASE will deliver graduate and undergraduate degree programs focused on STEM education and the social sciences through three divisions – the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Business and Engineering. School.
Strategically, it is the first technology-focused campus, aiming to become part of the technology ecosystem in Silicon Zanzibar. ASE is committed to actively participate in the launch of technology start-ups, the training of human capital and skills needed to develop and commercialize new technology and the incubation of innovative companies.
To support the upcoming launch, the university will also accelerate its current recruitment drive to attract 50 elite faculty members and 900 students from around the world, providing the highest level of learning to ensure African students can compete on a global stage.
What they say
Speaking about the launch of the new campus of the ASE, Professor Leonard Wantchekon, Founder and President at the ASEsays “Since its inception in 2014, the vision for ASE has always been to create a Pan-African university system and with our first launch in East Africa, it was vital that we chose an environment that strongly reflected our ethos. At XAA, we strongly believe that it is not enough to simply educate STEM talent, we must also create an enabling policy environment that enables their ideas to truly scale.”
“Through the Silicon Zanzibar initiative, Zanzibar has made impressive progress in this area, establishing policies that greatly encourage cutting edge innovation. Coupled with its strong entrepreneurial spirit and close proximity to a number of well-regarded East African universities, we strongly believe that these qualities make Zanzibar the ideal destination to spearhead the next chapter of our pan-African expansion.”
“For the past 12 years, Princeton’s Department of Politics has served as an incubator for ASE. Last year, an ASE graduate earned his Ph.D. at Princeton. and has been appointed adjunct professor at New York University (NYU), a world-class university. We congratulate the AE for expanding its mission of excellence in research and training to a second regional hub on the continent“, he said Professor Rodney Priestley, Dean of the Graduate School, and the Pomeroy and Betty Perry Smith Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University.
Record
Launched in Benin in 2014, ASE was established to address the twin challenges of a lack of African representation at the forefront of cutting-edge research as well as limited training of top-tier talent on the continent. With more than 2,000 students and alumni, 12+ degree programs and four campuses across its locations in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Zanzibar, it ranks as one of Africa’s leading universities in terms of the quality of research, the caliber of faculty, and students as well as the outstanding postgraduate placement record.
By The Numbers
In the last 7 years, more than 15% of A.A.E. graduates they have been placed in top global doctoral programs at institutions such as Princeton, Harvard University, Penn State University, and the University of Wisconsin. 75% of graduates he has held research, government and private sector positions in both global and regional offices at UNDP, the Central Bank of West African States, the governments of Togo, Benin and Cameroon, as well as a position at New York University.
The announcement of the opening of the ASE in Zanzibar follows the recent awarding of the World Economy Prize to Prof. Leonard Wantchekon in June 2023 for his visionary work in both the establishment of the ESA and his world-leading research in development economics. He received the award together with Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of the World Trade Organization, and Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin, Head of Innovation at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Kiel, Germany.
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