In July 2015, ALU staff and faculty moved to the island of Mauritius after nearly two years of planning, curriculum design and two application cycles to open the first of many campuses. In August 2015, our first campus, African Leadership College (ALC), was inaugurated by His Excellency, John Dramani Mahama, President of Ghana and Xavier-Luc Duval, Deputy Prime Minister of Mauritius. In October, ALC opened its doors to the first cohort of 60 students who arrived full of passion and desire to learn. In November, the first cohort was joined by 10 more students who joined ALC’s English Immersion programme for students who don’t speak English as a first Language. In January 2016, it welcomed 110 more inaugural class founders. Together the class of 180 students comes from 29 countries across the African continent.
Following this long journey of memorable firsts, ALU will officially open to the world with a Grand Opening celebration in Mauritius from March 16 – 17, 2016. The two-day event will be hosted by Graça Machel, ALU Chancellor and Donald Kaberuka, chair of the Global Advisory Council and former President of the African Development Bank.
The celebration will be marked by three main events. The first is the Reimagine Education Conference on March 16, which will bring together education experts and secondary school leaders from around the world to explore the question: How can secondary schools better prepare students for the 21st Century? Leading international experts on innovative learning and pedagogy will share best practices and latest insights on how to improve student engagement, learning outcomes and hone the skills that are required to be successful in the world of tomorrow.
The second event is University for a Day where global academics such as Professor Pamela Gillies, CBE (Vice-Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University, ALC’s founding academic and accreditation partner ); global business leaders such as Gary Cohen (former Chairman of IBM for Africa); and various leaders in government, business, academia, and the media will get to experience what the life of an ALU student is like. They will attend classes, meet students and faculty and learn about ALU’s teaching and learning model.
Finally, this Grand Opening celebration will culminate with a gala dinner that will bring together ALU’s supporters and friends. The evening’s activities include a live question and answer session between, Graça Machel and Professor Pamela Gillies, CBE, performances by two-time Grammy award winner, Hugh Masekela and African Leadership Academy almunus, Ny Ony Razafindratandra.
After so many firsts, the ALU community is proud to come together with friends and stakeholders to celebrate our progress towards building the university of the future.
