The European Union Delegation to the African Union, led by Ambassador Javier Nino Perez, visited Addis Ababa University (AAU) on August 15th, 2024.

During the visit, Ambassador Perez and his team that included Dr. Laurent Bochereau (Minister-Counselor for Science, Technology), John Viliers (Program and Policy Officer), Biruk Feleke (Press and Information Officer), and Mohammed Ali Ahmed and Dr. Yedilfana Setarge ( Regional Representative to Africa for EURAXESS Worldwide), met with Addis Ababa University Interim President Dr. Samuel Kifle and his senior leadership team: Dr. Matiwos Ensermu (Head of the President’s Office), Dr. Abdurezak Mohammed (V/P for Administration and Student Services), Dr. Samson Mekonnen (Vice President for Strategic Communications and Internationalization), and Prof. Worash Getaneh (Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer).

Dr. Samuel Kifle introduced the university as Ethiopia’s flagship higher education institution ranked as a leading research university in Sub-Africa.

For his part, Ambassador Perez emphasized the European Union’s strong support for the African Union  as well as  Addis Ababa University.

He mentioned the EU’s contributions to AAU’s academic mobility programs, research initiatives, and innovation efforts through various funding mechanisms such as Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe, and Erasmus+.

 The ambassador referred to 2024 as the African Union’s “Year of Education” and expressed interest in AAU’s engagement with the AU Commission.

During the discussions, the parties touched on several key topics, including: broader AU-EU relations, the role of higher education, research, and Innovation, highlighting EU-AU joint higher education programs, current trends in African higher education and research, engagement in public diplomacy,  AAU’s participation in various EU programs like Horizon Europe and Erasmus and the impact of the current  economic situation on education in Ethiopia, etc

Dr. Samuel Kifle acknowledged the EU’s substantial support for Addis Ababa University, highlighting the university’s ongoing projects and partnerships funded by the EU, including intra-Africa academic mobility, Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe, and Erasmus, adding that AAU, as Ethiopia’s pioneering autonomous public university, has ratified new policies on student admissions and tuition fees, to be implemented in the upcoming academic year.

Ambassador Perez reiterated his commitment to supporting Addis Ababa University through public diplomacy efforts, including high-level visits, expert exchanges, and dialogues on topics such as EU-AU cooperation, digital agriculture, health, energy, and artificial intelligence.

Furthermore, Dr. Laurent Bochereau announced plans to offer unpaid internship opportunities for AAU graduate students.

These internships will allow students from departments like Political Science, International Relations, African and Asian Studies, Information Science, and Computational Data Science to conduct a portion of their thesis work at the office of the EU Delegation to the African Union.

Both Dr. Samuel Kifle and Ambassador Javier Nino Perez expressed their mutual commitment to further strengthening the collaboration between Addis Ababa University and the European Union Delegation to the African Union.