A Nasa-trained chief executive, ?13 million of backing and degrees from first-world educators - the future looks bright for the AVU. Kihumba Kamotho reports

The African Virtual University has been restructured so that, instead of offering its own degrees, it will distribute computer science and business studies programmes from Australian and Canadian universities.

It will start with a degree course in computer science from November and a business management programme next year.

The Association of Canadian Universities is working with the AVU to develop an information communication technology degree programme for French-speaking countries. The University of Laval in Quebec is to provide the course.

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The AVU's headquarters have moved to Nairobi from Washington DC and a new chief executive officer has been appointed. Cheick Diarra, a dual citizen of the US and Mali, was an interplanetary navigation expert with America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The AVU offers diploma and certificate courses in physics, mathematics, journalism and information technology.

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But it intends to phase out the short courses and replace them with accredited diplomas. Last year it had planned degree courses in mathematics, engineering and computer science.

"By focusing on fewer products in the initial period, the AVU will be in a position to commit the available resources to achieve high-quality programmes right from the beginning," Phinias Makhurane, chairman of the AVU's board, said.

Professor Makhurane said earlier plans to work with private and corporate learning centres had also been abandoned to "enable the university to achieve early results".

The AVU will in future concentrate on universities. The World Bank, the European Union and the Canadian and Australian governments have pledged ?13 million to enable the university to carry out the programmes.

A digital library has been established and funds set aside for the development of the library and acquisition of e-books.

So far, AVU sites are hosted by 31 universities in 17 African countries, up from only 11 universities - six in English-speaking and five in Francophone Africa - at its inception in 1997.

Dr Diarra said the AVU would focus on affordable quality education that would help the continent to tackle its numerous social, political and economic problems.

"We will as much as possible ensure that the cost of obtaining a university degree does not exceed the cost of a return ticket to America or Europe," Dr Diarra said.

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He said there were too many qualified young Africans who had been denied an education because of the limited number of places and the exorbitant cost.

To boost its capacity, the university has upgraded its internet connectivity by installing high-speed satellite facilities.

The Kenyan government has licensed it to operate Vsat (very small aperture terminal), which allows a direct internet connection with the outside world.

Dr Diarra said the AVU would develop a "learning portal" where universities pay a fee to post their learning material to be broadcast through the AVU network. This is expected to provide a body of knowledge that can be harnessed by the participating universities.

Peter Materu, the AVU's deputy executive director, said distance learning would also bridge the digital divide between rich and poor African countries.

The AVU is a World Bank project, which set out to use the power of modern information technologies to increase access to desperately needed educational resources in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Its integration of satellite technology and the internet allow it to provide quality educational content from all over the world at an affordable cost.

Academics can deliver classes from a studio classroom, while courses and seminars are beamed by satellite to AVU learning centres across Africa, which are equipped with inexpensive satellite dishes.

A typical AVU classroom has between 25 and 30 students, who are able to view lecturers on large screen projectors, television monitors or computers, and interact with the lecturer in real-time using phone, fax and email. Students in Rwanda or Ghana, for example, are able to question a professor in Togo or Canada. Discussions can be heard and commented on by students in Uganda and Senegal.

At each centre, on-site facilitators guide students through materials and liaise with course instructors. The broadcast network's up-link is at Comsat Tele-port in Clarksburg, Maryland, US, and learning centres act as receive-only sites spread across Sub-Saharan Africa.

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The network uses digital video and audio broadcast over the New Skies Satellite (NSS) 803 in C-Band. Full interaction is achieved through two-way audio making use of telephone land lines as return links, but also through email, forums and chat boards, which are the cheapest way of reaching millions of people simultaneously in real time.

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