Strategy for alignment to the LMD system in selected francophone universities of Africa

This study aimed at i) identifying the challenges faced by selected francophone universities of Africa, under the EU-ACP EDULINK II ADECEA project, in aligning post-graduate programmes to the Licence-Master-Doctorat (LMD) system, and ii) developing a strategy for aligning the systems used by these universities to the LMD system. Consultations and key informant interviews were used to collect the necessary information from key stakeholders (university staff, research renters, local and, international NGOs, governors, ministers, local and national legislators, religious leaders and students) among others in Burundi, D.R Congo and Madagascar. Key challenges to the implementation of the LMD system included limited political commitment to higher education; limited scientific and technological research; limited capacity (human, financial and infrastructural) to train the rapidly growing number of students; low staffing; and insufficient resources allocated to education and their unequal distribution between wages, pedagogy, research and investment. In addition, there are shortcomings in university governance, leadership and communication within the higher educational institutions (HEIs). Successful LMD implementation in the targeted universities should entail: enhanced and strengthened organizational and institutional capacities of the universities, review and update of existing curricula development of course modules and their content, and creation and strengthening partnerships between the targeted universities and those with comparative advantage.