There was universal support for the African Association of Universities, from the African academic community, from other international university associations, and from donors to African higher education. Under its present leadership, the organization has won respect for its capacity to articulate the interests and needs of its member universities, set an agenda for debate on university reform, and facilitate investigations of a range of important questions in academic planning and management.

If the AAU did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it. It is difficult to exaggerate the need for a continental body to represent and defend the interests of the African university community, especially at a time of unprecedented privation, when the fortunes of most African states are at a low ebb and their international influence is diminished. The AAU speaks for its members, and indirectly for the academic community of Africa, in the forums of the OAU, ECA, the Commonwealth and Francophone associations, and UNESCO, among others. It is bound to be an influential presence at meetings of the Working Group on Higher Education of the Donors to African Education. It has forged an interesting triangular alliance with the International Association of Universities and UNESCO, and collaborates with the ACU and the UNU.

Aside from its representational functions, the AAU manages a database and information clearing house on African universities, and has attracted donor support for the four-year Plan of Activities agreed by its General Conference. This includes a West African sub-regional project to reinforce scientific and technological capacity in the field of food and nutrition (funded by the EC); a survey of postgraduate training capacity in West and Central African universities with a view to sharing resources and developing complementary activities (funded by IDRC) in parallel with a similar IDRC-supported program in Eastern and Southern Africa; DAAD has promised follow-up support to the West African project if it is successfully appraised); a study of links between universities and `the productive sector' (funded by IDRC); a project to review the curricula of African universities in development economics, and prepare and publish a collaborative multi-level textbook (UNDP/ECA); this project also has components to promote consultancy services and research net-working in African universities; a major study of efficiency and cost-effectiveness in a sample of African universities (NUFFIC/IBRD); and collaboration with UNESCO in running a consultation and a workshop on strategic management for African Vice-Chancellors and Rectors. All items in this program are active.