The current membership of the Inter-University Council of East Africa (IUCEA) is 34 universities. These are small in size as well as very big ones with comprehensive academic programmes ranging from undergraduate certificates to Ph.D. courses. In these universities all areas of academic, research and administrative pursuits are covered.

SEE ALSO
	• IUCEA Web Site • Africa Initiative Roundtable

The following areas should form part of the collaboration between UGA and East African universities:

Student Exchanges
The UGA could collaborate with the IUCEA in conducting student exchange programmes for both undergraduate and postgraduate students. In this exercise, students from universities in East Africa could study at the University of Georgia for a specified duration of time, and the vice versa. This could either be long term or short term. In short term, a number of students could be exchanged between the University of Georgia and East African universities for, say, a semester. During this time, they will be attending lectures with their counterparts from the other university. The long-term exchange programme is where a student from either region could be sponsored to study at the foreign university for the whole degree programme.

This exercise will enable the partners to share the resources available at their individual regions, and to make the students get the needed exposure to the way things are done in the various parts of the world.

Staff Exchange (Short and Long Term)
The common forms of staff exchange that could be considered by the UGA and her counterparts in East Africa include the following:

• Faculty taking sabbatical and using this time to teach at the partner university for a specified period.
• Exchange of examiners, especially external examination.
• Exchange of supervisors for theses and dissertations. This could be done mainly at the postgraduate levels of study.
• Exchange of staff in specialised areas, where they go to participate in the implementation of various projects ant the partner institutions. This could involve both academic and administrative staff.

The main areas where the staff exchange programme could be implemented include administration, academic matters, library issues, and student affairs.

Exchange of Information
In the current state of academic environment, where the world has been reduced by technology into what is commonly referred to as the "global village," it is prudent for members of the academia in different corners of the globe to participate in frequent exchanges of information, to avoid being rendered irrelevant. This could be in the form of academic publications, research findings, reports of seminars and workshops, conference proceedings, and general information on higher education trends.

Training Opportunities
This kind of exchange will benefit especially the East African partners. It has been observed that training opportunities, especially in technology-driven disciplines are rare in the African region. The excess capacity available in the America could be used ti fill this gap for the East Africans. The UGA partners could also benefit from this exchange, especially to study in areas revolving around the humanities, including culture, religion, history and literary studies.

Collaborative Research
Topics of mutual interest and benefit could be identified, and faculty specialized in those areas could be brought together to undertake joint research on the identified issues. Joint research could also be undertaken by postgraduate students in the two regions. These collaborations could be addressed through departments, individual scholars, universities (on a one-to-one basis), or consortiums.