Jean Monnet programme discussed at East African VC meeting
On 21 September 2017, Jean-Marc Trouille of the Faculty of Management and Law was invited by the EU Delegation in Tanzania to address an audience of East African Vice-Chancellors and Deans in Dar Es Salaam.
The event, ‘European Union Meets Academia – a Networking Session’, took place at the Coral Beach Hotel and was launched by Ambassador Roeland van de Geer, Head of the EU Delegation. The aim of the event was to inform Tanzanian universities about opportunities offered by EU programmes to set up academic cooperations with Europe.
Jean-Marc gave a talk on the Jean Monnet Programme, its purpose and objectives, and the range of EU funding opportunities that it offers. In his speech he pointed out that Africa was still uncharted territory in terms of Jean Monnet projects. There was indeed only one Jean Monnet Chair on the whole continent, at the University of Pretoria (South Africa), but thanks to the University of Bradford’s EU-funded initiative ‘The EU, Africa and China in the Global Age’, the reach of Jean Monnet programmes now encompasses the member states of the East African Community (EAC). Promoting cooperation between the European Union and Africa, within and beyond academia, is one of the core aims of Bradford’s initiative.
Jean-Marc has acted several times as a Jean Monnet Expert on behalf of the EU Commission’s EACEA Agency. He gave talks last year at the Lebanese University in Beirut to academics from Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan, and this year at the US International University – Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, and at the East African Community Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.