WRITTEN QUESTION E-2607/00 by Concepció Ferrer (PPE-DE) to the Commission. African Virtual University (AVU).
Date: 2000-08-01
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU financing, World Bank, co-financing, cooperation policy, distance learning, information technology, sub-Saharan Africa, university

8.5.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 136 E/53

(2001/C 136 E/059)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2607/00

by Concepci(cid:243) Ferrer (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(1 August 2000)

Subject: African Virtual University (AVU)

The Commission has recently signed a co-financing agreement for a World Bank programme for the
countries of sub-Saharan Africa concerning information technology training in higher education.

According to the information available,
the Commission(cid:146)s contribution will amount to € 1 million,
representing 15 % of the total cost of the project. 5 000 students from 23 universities in 15 countries
took part in the pilot phase of the programme.

Can the Commission say what countries have benefited from this programme?

Does the Commission not consider it necessary to determine what sections of the population have
benefited from the AVU to date?

Answer given by Mr Nielson on behalf of the Commission

(22 September 2000)

Community support to the African Virtual University (AVU) aims to bring benefits of a university-level
education to all African universities, professors and students, through a major investment in distance,
virtual education. It is not targeted to specific countries, but to tertiary level institutions having the will
and the capacity to participate.

Since its inception, in 1997, the AVU has set up 25 learning centres in 15 African countries (Ethiopia,
Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Benin, Burundi, Burkina Fasso,
Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, and Senegal). By early 2000, over 2 500 hours of instructional programmes
have been delivered, 12 000 enrolments in semester-long courses, and 2 500 enrolments in executive
business seminars; 1 000 personal computers (PC) have been delivered to learning centres, mobilising
about 3 000 e-mail users and a digital library of over 1 000 journals. AVU uses a technical infrastructure
that integrates satellites and computer technologies.

Survey results from student participants support the contention that AVU distance learning improves
access to broad populations and should, in the long run, show exponential growth in their (cid:145)acquis(cid:146).

The Community intends to participate in the future investments within the framework of the World Bank(cid:146)s
five-year AVU business plan 2000-2005. Its contribution should be quantitatively substantial, in order to
have a significant qualitative impact on the culturally appropriate learning design of the AVU, within the
perspective of regional co-operation in Africa.

(2001/C 136 E/060)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2608/00

by Dorette Corbey (PSE) to the Commission

(1 August 2000)

Subject: Implementation of the bird protection directive

On 13 July 2000 I received a petition bearing almost 100 000 signatures of members of the public
dismayed at the extent of the trapping of birds in France. Some trapping methods are unnecessarily cruel
and should therefore be prohibited. Some trapping methods (lime-twigs, nets) make no distinction between
species and should therefore be banned during the migration and breeding seasons.