Ahmed Hassan Sayed Hassan is the Director of projects management unit for enhancement of higher education, and Director of quality assurance and accreditation center at Assiut University. Since 1968, he has been on the faculty of Veterinary Histology at the Assiut University. He earned his Ph.D. degree from the University of Veterinary Science, Budapest Hungary in 1975 and began travelling in 1985 to highly reputable institutes in Europe and USA for scientific research. Such professional experience resulted in 90 scientific publications in both national and international journals. He is committed to enhance the higher education quality in Assiut University as well as implementation of new strategies to ensure quality education and continued improvement of higher education of all faculties (18 faculties) at Assiut University.
Project Focus: Strategic planning for quality assurance

Boshra Awad is a professor of physical organic chemistry, University College of Women for Arts, Science, and Education at Ain Shams University. An expert of information technology in the Science Education Center, she is the Manager and director of the HEEPF project entitled “Empowerment of Education in Egypt” for development a Virtual campus at Ain Shams University. She also serves as a consultant to the director of Supreme Council of Egyptian Universities (SCU). Prior to this appointment, She was the Director of the National E-Learning Center, SCU. She has also served as a consultant to the Minister of Education in Egypt, to improve and upgrade teaching and learning using the new technologies; E–learning, Multimedia, Videoconferencing. Her major professional appointments and accomplishments are in the area of e-learning and distant learning in Egypt, Europe, Africa and Asia. She has been a Visiting professor to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign USA through a Unitwin Project between UNESCO, ALESCO and University of Illinois for Upgrading and Enhancement of Teaching and Learning Chemistry Using New Technologies. She completed her Masters degree in 2001 from the  University of Illinois entitled:  Making the Virtual Classroom a Reality and Online Faculty Development Courses: Online Learning.
Project Focus: Improving resources for access and success in Africa

Fatima Lamishi Adamu is a senior lecturer in the department of Sociology at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, Nigeria, teaching gender and feminist studies, sociology of development and social research methods. She is engaged in a series of research on gender issues, especially gender and religion and poverty as a human right issue. She also provides consultancy services on the same subjects. She is currently involved in the establishment of national gender data bank in Nigeria. Her other activities include community service and activism on women issues and therefore held various positions within the women’s movement.
Project Focus: Study of female-female relationships for improved girl's performance and access to university education in northern Nigeria

Felix Kayode Olakulehin is a Research Fellow at the Regional Training and Research Institute for Open and Distance Learning (RETRIDAL), an international training & research institute co-established by the National Open University of Nigeria, Lagos, Nigeria and the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), Vancouver, Canada, to develop a strong corps of experts in various areas of open and distance learning (ODL) within the West African sub-region.  He holds Master’s in educational management, and a Master of Arts in distance education, a Bachelors degree in social studies, and a postgraduate diploma in distance education. He is a recipient of the Commonwealth of Learning’s Rajiv Ghandi Fellowship for Open and Distance Learning. He is currently undertaking doctoral research in educational cost analysis and human capital development using distance learning methods. He has published extensively in both national and international journals. He is also a member of several professional academic bodies including the African Council for Distance Education (ACDE), National Association of Educational Administration and Planning (NAEAP), and the Curriculum Organization of Nigeria (CON). He has participated in training and development in distance learning both within and outside Nigeria. His research interests include human resource development; planning, management and economics of education, information technology, open learning and distance education, instructional design and cost analysis in distance education.
Project Focus: Policy formulation and capacity building for improved access to higher education in Nigeria

Haroon Mahomed South Africa National Department of Education

Haroon Mahomed is the Director for teacher development in the department of Education. Previously, he served in the Gauteng Provincial department of Education as Executive Director in Curriculum Development Institute and also as head of teaching and learning. Served on Ministerial Review team for curriculum 2005, and coordinated implementation Working Group for NCS. Taught at primary and secondary levels, and worked in a range of community-based and non-formal programs. He earned B.A, HDip.Ed, BED, MED (Philosophy of Education); M.Ed.(Sociology of Education in Developing countries) and is registered for PHD in Policy Studies. He is a qualified soccer coach.
Project Focus: Teacher education and development; addressing issues of shortage and quality

Helen Oronga Aswani Mwanzi holds a PhD in Literature from the University of Nairobi with specialization in language. In her graduate degree, she focused on the “imagery in children's literature in Kenya". She is a professionally trained teacher, a member of the University of Nairobi Gender Committee, a creative writer, a producer and a national adjudicator of drama and music. She is also a religious scholar.
Project Focus: Development of programs to retain marginalized student populations after enrollment

Ibrahim Oanda is a lecturer in the department of Educational Foundations at Kenyatta University, teaching courses in sociology and philosophy of education. Currently, he coordinates a comparative Research Network in East Africa on ‘trends and implications of the corporatization of public universities in East Africa’ (CODESRIA). His research and writing interests focus on transformations taking place in universities in Africa and the implications on issues of social equity, quality of education and epistemological underpinnings of research and knowledge production in the Universities, within the context of globalization. Completed research in the area include a study on the ‘Implications of privatization and private higher education on equity and knowledge production in Kenyan public universities’ (in press) Funded by CODESRIA. He has also participated in a study on ‘Developing performance Indicators for East African Universities (IUCEA), and won A Rockefeller post-doctoral fellowship on ‘The Nature and Status of Women and Gender Studies in East African Universities’, and the manuscript is under preparation for publication. Recent publications include ‘New frontiers of Exclusion; Private Higher Education and Women’s opportunities in Kenya’ (JHEA, Vol 3, 2005), and ‘Women and Gender studies in East African Universities and the need for a transformative pedagogy; issues and challenges’ (OSSEREA Bulletin, vol iii, 2006).

Project Focus: Integrating learning support and student welfare programs into affirmative access policies to increase participation of Women and "Disadvantaged" Students in professional courses in public universities in Kenya

Lilian-Rita Akudolu is an associate professor in curriculum and instruction at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria. She is a Commonwealth Fellow and completed her Fellowship at the University of Glasgow, United Kingdom 2005/2006. She studied French language Education and Curriculum Studies and received a PhD in computer-assisted instruction. Her area of interests includes instructional use of information and communications technology, gender issues and capacity building for women.
Project Focus: Identifying strategies for enhancing girls' access to higher education in South Eastern Nigeria.

Michael Cross has been teaching educational and policy studies at the School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, since 1986. In his academic career, he has produced more than 45 refereed publications including books and scholarly articles both nationally and internationally, and has been rated as a social scientist by the National Research Foundation for his contribution to knowledge. He has served in several technical committees responsible for the development of higher education and teacher education policies in the national and provincial departments of Education. He has been awarded research and teaching fellowships in key international institutions, namely, the Johns Hopkins University, North-western University, Stanford University in the USA, University of Stockholm in Sweden and Picardie Jules-Verne Université in France. He is a founder and member of the South African Doctoral Consortium of Schools of Education that provides doctoral training in education policy studies, and has been an editor-in-chief of a leading education journal in South Africa, Perspectives in Education.  He is currently conducting research projects on institutional culture, access and student performance in higher education.
Project Focus: Access to campus or access to knowledge? The challenge of higher education transformation in South Africa

Muhammad Albdry Muhammad Nabih is an associate professor and vice head of Geography Dept., Minia University, Director of Environmental Studies and Research Center ESRC, trainer at Faculty and leadership Development Program FLDP, Head of the second year students scores control at Faculty of Arts, Minia Univ. He earned a PhD in Urban Infrastructure Planning in 1994 through Channel systems between Minia University and San Diego state University SDSU, Master in Applied Geography in rural planning in 1986, and a Bachelor in Geography 1979. He worked for more than five years at United Arab Emirates University - the first accredited Arab University – in the region.
Project Focus: Analytical approach to upgrade African Higher Education

Nadia El Arabi Ahmed Egypt Right to Live Association

Nadia El-Arabi Ahmed has been working with people with mental disabilities for the last twenty years at the Right to Live Association. She graduated in Fine Arts and received her Masters and PhD from Education College. She is an Artist, Art Therapist, and Art Supervisor. Since 1998, she has been actively involved in the Suzanne Mubarak Development project as an Art supervisor for Art workshops and Vocational training workshops in fourteen mental intellectual schools. A mother of two boys, she likes music and climbing mountains.
Project Focus: Higher Education of students with disabilities, and challenges in Egyptian Universities.

Narend Baijnath South Africa University Of South Africa

Narend Baijnath is Vice Principal of Strategy, Planning and Partnerships at the University of South Africa. He holds a Masters degree from Durham University in the UK, and a PhD from the University of the Western Cape. He has extensive experience in higher education research, evaluation, policy and planning, and has participated in several national initiatives in higher education development and reform, aside from his diverse institutional roles. In 2005 he was tasked with driving the process of developing a ten year plan for Unisa in light of the restructured higher education landscape, and post-apartheid reform imperatives. His current responsibilities include coordinating and steering the implementation of Unisa’s ten-year strategic plan, expanding its international partnerships in line with this plan, overseeing an institution-wide quality assurance process, and steering a process to re-configure the business architecture of the organization. In 2007, he was elected a visiting fellow at the Von Hugel Institute, St Edmunds College, Cambridge University, and a visiting research professor at the Open University of UK.
Project Focus: Harnessing the potential of distance education for the development of higher education in Africa

Olive Mugenda is the Chief Executive Officer and Vice-Chancellor of Kenyatta University since 2006, the only lady Vice-Chancellor of a Public University in the Eastern African region.  Prior to this appointment, she held several administrative positions i.e. Chairman of Department, Director of Linkages and International Programs, Dean of Faculty, Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Finance, Planning & Development. She has experience studying in a number of institutions in Africa and abroad including University of Nairobi, Iowa State University (USA), Oxford University and University of Warwick (England) thus earning a variety of academic degrees. She received BA in Education (1979), MSc in Family Consumer Studies (1983) and PhD in Family Studies, Education and Research Methods (1988). Recently in 2007, she graduated with a Masters of Business Administration from Eastern and Southern African Management Institute (ESAMI). Her professional interest is in the promotion of women education.
Project Focus: Increasing Access of Women to Science and Technology Programs in the Universities in Kenya

Pakinaz Baraka is an Assistant Professor in the department of Business Administration, Misr University for Sciences & Technology (MUST), one of the leading private universities in Cairo. She received her Masters in Public Administration (1988) and Education (1992) from American University in Cairo and the Victoria University of Manchester, the United Kingdom respectively. In 2003, she earned a PhD in Public Policy from Cairo University. After experiencing a diverse professional background (mass communication, public relations, advertisement, banking, administrative development, tourism, teaching, research, training and consultancy), she is now focusing on educational reform, decentralization in education, local development, governance, and democratic(civic) education in public schools. Recently, she was granted a Fulbright Research/Lecturing grant to the School of Education, University of Pittsburgh (USA) for the academic year 2006/2007.
Project Focus: Faculty/staff development, and sustainable and diversified funding resources

Peliwe Lolwana is the Chief Executive Officer of UMALUSI – the Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training in South Africa. Her past experiences in South Africa and USA include being a teacher; lecturer; psychologist; research policy director; director and executive officer. She obtained a PhD from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (USA) in 1991. She has served in many commissions tasked with the transformation of apartheid education in South Africa. She serves in a number of Associations, Boards and Councils in education, in South Africa, Africa, and the Commonwealth.  She has published and presented papers on a number of issues in education and training.
Project Focus: Developing access pathways for adults in the South African higher education.

Sabiha Essack South Africa University of Kwa-Zulu Natal

Sabiha Essack holds the positions of Dean of the faculty of Health Sciences, and Associate Professor in Pharmaceutics in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmacology. She is a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow and completed her PhD at St Bartholomew’s and the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry in the United Kingdom.  Her current portfolio includes membership of the University’s Access Advisory Committee, University Research Committee, the LEAP (Leadership and Equity Advancement Program) Academy and Management Committees, the Salary Subvention Committee, the Science Access Steering Committee and the Student Counseling Council in addition to the chairmanship and/or membership of several Faculty and College committees. She is also a president of the South African Chapter of the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics. She has initiated 2 projects related to student access, retention and success in the Faculty of Health Sciences. The conceptual framework includes student support and development (for both ‘at risk’ and excellent students), curriculum development and capacity building of academic staff in terms of teaching strategies and pedagogies.
Project Focus: Access, retention and success in African higher education: the human resources imperative.

Segun Adedeji teaches Economics of Education in the department of Educational Management, University of Ibadan. He is the Managing Editor of the Journal of Sociology and Education in Africa. He co-edited the proceedings of a research colloquium “Education and Development in the Commonwealth: Comparative Perspectives” sponsored by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, June 2004. He was a MacArthur Fellow at the Centre for Comparative Education Research, University of Nottingham, U.K. (2004 – 2005), and holds a PhD from the University of Ibadan. His research interests include Education for Development, Allocation of Educational Resources and Application of Information Communication Technology (ICT) for Rural Development.
Project Focus: Improving access and quality of outcome of higher education in Nigeria through allocation and utilization of resources (economic theory)

Stehen O. Odebero Kenya Egerton University

Stephen Odebero serves as lecturer and researcher in the department of education administration and planning at Egerton University from where he recently received his PhD in planning and economics of education. He also teaches at Masinde Muliro University in Kenya. His focus on higher education financing has led him to present several papers at conferences nationally and internationally, write proposals and discuss equity and access issues on televised broadcasts. His recent publications include, “Equity in Loan Disburesements in Kenya in Relation to Students Characteristics: An Empirical Analysis”, Nigeria Journal of Research Review, and “Demand and Supply on HELB Loans in Kenya”, Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review, Vol. No. 3. He is a traditional drummer and enjoys singing and dancing.
Project Focus: Equity in access to university education in Africa through loan schemes in relation to student characteristics and effectiveness in loan recovery

Victor Dugga is a lecturer, creative writer and theatre director at the University of Jos, where he also serves as pioneer Executive Director, Advancement Office. He studied at the Universities of Jos, Nigeria, Essex, UK and Bayreuth, Germany. His book Creolisations in Nigerian Theatre was published in 2002 and his short story ‘Over the bar’ won first prize in a writing contest organized by the Swiss society for African Studies and FIFA in Zurich 2001. He attended CASE Fundraising Institute in Durham in 2004 and 2005. Working on scholarships as a factor of access, he is interested in exploring funding options for higher education in Nigeria.
Project Focus: Development of financial resources to promote academic activities in higher education: student scholarship.

Violet Wawire is lecturer and researcher in the department of Education Foundations at Kenyatta University. She received PhD in Education (2007) and Masters degree in Sociology of Education at Kenyatta University. She has been granted numerous research grants and scholarships to conduct research in the field of higher education. She has co-authored a number of books and papers including, “Public and Private Universities in Kenya” published by James Curry; “Implications of higher education transformations on access and quality of University Programmes in Kenya” presented to CODESRIA National Working Group program; “Cross border university education for capacity development: Quality, access and equity issues in transnational delivery modes” presented to the School of Education, Kenyatta University.
Project Focus: Investigating Access and Retention opportunities for students with disabilities in Kenya's Higher Education: strategies and experiences from selected public universities