BY DOH JAMES SONKEY
The professional evolution of some 1.772 lecturers in Cameroon state universities is being decided by members of the Advisory Committee of University Institutions (CCIU) as they met at their 45th and 46th sessions last December 20 to 23, 2021 at the amphitheater 200 of the National Advanced School of Engineering of the University of Yaoundé I.
Officially opening the deliberations, the minister of State, minister of Higher Education and chancellor of Academic Orders, Prof Jacques Fame Ndongo who doubles as chairperson of the Advisory Committee of University Institutions (CCIU) called on members to show proof of transparency and objectivity in the examination of files relating to research and academic evolution of lecturers in order to detect and accompany outstanding ones for the benefit of the university community in Cameroon. He said the deliberations will hold over four days instead of the usual three days, a duration which is proportionate to the number of applications for access into the various ranks of the corps of Higher Education teachers, an increase compared to the precious sessions.
“CCIU session is a privilege moment for dialogue and scientific sharing between different officials of universities and experts gathered here. Conceived to give university titles and grades, CCIU must in effect remain for us a prestigious institution that guarantees equal chances and credibility of our university system which is in competition with other systems and evaluation modes.” the minister of State underlined.
He explained that compared to previous sessions that saw the examination of between 600 to 700 files, the huge increase of files came as a result of the special recruitment of Doctorate and PhD holders in 2019 as most of the 1.237 recruited candidates sent in files seeking for promotion to the rank of lecturers.
The double sessions therefore enabled experts to review 1.247 files for promotion into the rank of lecturers, 382 files for the rank of associate professor and 143 for the rank of full professor. Experts scrutinized about 4.000 expertise reports and interviewed 320 applicants.