Professor Juma Shabani

Professor Juma Shabani is currently President of the Burundi National Commission for Higher Education; Director of the Doctoral School of the University of Burundi; President of the International Conference on Quality assurance in Higher Education in Africa; President of the Burundi Academy of Sciences and Technology, President of the International Advisory Board of the Africa Centre of Excellence for Innovative and Transformative STEM Education at Lagos State University, Nigeria; Member of the High-Level Panel of the Pan African University, Coordinator of the African Union Quality Assurance Sub-cluster of the Continental Education Strategy for Africa; Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) for the advancement of science in developing countries. He worked for 17 years at UNESCO as Senior Specialist for higher education in Africa; Director of the UNESCO Harare and Bamako Cluster Offices; UNESCO Representative to several countries and Regional Economic Communities; and Responsible for development and coordination of UNESCO’s programs in higher education at Headquarters in Paris. Before joining UNESCO, Professor Shabani held several senior positions including Deputy Secretary-General of the Association of African Universities; Vice-Rector of the University of Burundi and Professor of mathematical physics at the University of Burundi. Professor Shabani also served as Vice- President of the African Academy of Sciences; Co-Director of the Virtual Institute for Higher Education in Africa; Member of the International Board of Suffolk University in Boston, USA; Member of the Executive Committee of the Global University Network for Innovation, Barcelona, Spain; Member of the Board of the Centre for Higher Education Trust in Cape Town, South Africa; Member of the Board of Trustees of UbuntuNet Alliance. He holds a PhD in mathematical physics from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. He has produced over 100 publications in the areas of pure mathematics, mathematical physics and higher education, including Books’ chapters, Guides and articles indexed in international databases.