Welcome to TAMU

One of the most celebrated quotes of Nelson Mandela goes thus, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” By this same token, “Mis-education is also the most powerful weapon which has been used to enslave Africa.” The renaissance that Africa is waiting for will come through a total shift in our paradigm of education. At TAMU, we feel humbled, yet fired up, to be a leader in this transformation.  

The African Meta University (TAMU) is built on an Afro-centric and transformational education philosophy that is underpinned by the five METAs of Transformational Education that we are pioneering: 

Inspired by the “Man, Know Thyself” inscription on the ancient temple walls of Giza-Egypt, we are cultivating a new generation of Africans that are rooted in their spiritual identity, immersed in their African culture, and are actively engaged in building communities of sharing (the Ubuntu spirit). An Afro-centric approach to transformational education does not mean promoting African exceptionalism. Rather, it is based on the premise that the assassination of the African identity through slavery and the assimilation of African culture through colonialism, are the root causes of the disenfranchisement of Africa and the destitution of the African people. Without being rooted in one’s authentic identity and culture, one is incapable of becoming a genuine intellectual that will contribute to the wider human community. An Afro-centric approach to education is thus the natural pathway to an African Renaissance. 

As self-aware beings that are actively thinking about their own thinking, our students will not be passive victims of social conditioning by creeds, dogmas, stereotypes, colonial curricula, and propaganda. They will rather have the tools with which to critically observe the world and deliberately architect their own freedom and prosperity. This means the power to decide what they want to learn, why they learn, whom they learn from, and how they learn. To help them achieve this, we shall empower our students with the learning skills of creativity critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, emotional intelligence, and collaboration.  

Learning how to learn is perhaps the most difficult aspect of education. Alvin Toffler wrote, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” In today’s information economy, “information overload” has become a major challenge to education and career development. Armed with the literacy skills of information literacy, media literacy, and technology literacy, our students shall be able to apply design thinking in creating meaning. They shall use this meaning to build innovative solutions and systems that have the potential to create impact.  

Today’s globalized and digitized economy is fraught with pandemics and conflicts. The needs of organizations keep shifting. The career stability of the previous generation is now a thing of the past. The half-life of knowledge is now barely one year for most professions. This means that by the time a student graduates from the university, the curriculum into which she was admitted is already obsolete. We shall prepare learners to emerge as graduates that do not limit themselves to linear thinking and job dependency. They shall rather be capable of using diagonal reasoning to become innovative and entrepreneurial professionals that always have a competitive advantage in the marketplace because of the value they create. A healthy mind is no use without a healthy body, so together with resilience and entrepreneurship, we shall help our learners take charge of their own health and wellness.  

Being the change we want to see in the world is not just a fancy quote from Gandhi. It is the vocation of The African Meta University to groom leaders that will usher Africa into its much-awaited renaissance. We shall inspire, motivate, and mentor our learners to awaken and apply empathy, initiative, leadership, time management, productivity, team building, and social skills in their academic, professional, and community lives. Conventional leadership frameworks and methodologies are no longer sufficient in solving the problems of businesses, organizations, communities, governments, and the global community that are constantly facing crisis situations imposed by disruptive technologies, globalization, pandemics, wars, shifting trends, and demographics, just to name a few. Meta-leadership is the ability to think without the box and lead from the soul. 

The TAMU Philosophical Framework of Education shall serve as the foundation on which we shall use innovative approaches to educate and empower entrepreneurial professionals that will lead transformational development in their communities.   

Engrained in TAMU’s Transformational Education Philosophy are the 21st century skills that make up a framework for equipping learners and professionals that are fit for today’s world. As as an innovative and Afrocentric institution, we have adapted the 21st century skills into four domains that align with the African Wholistic Worldview:    

• Spiritual identity 
• Cultural immersion  
• Community building 

• Creativity 
• Critical thinking 
• Problem solving  
• Communication 
• Emotional intelligence  
• Collaboration 

• Information literacy  
• Media literacy 
• Technology literacy 
• Research skills 

• Health and wellness  
• Resilience (adaptability)
• Self-reliance (entrepreneurship)

• Empathy 
• Initiative 
• Leadership 
• Time management 
• Productivity 
• Teamwork  
• Social skills 

While the curriculum for each program of study has a unique approach to preparing competent graduates who can excel in their respective professions, the Adapted 21st Century Skills form “the soul” of everything we do at TAMU. They are the “Soft Skills” that we groom all our students to embody, irrespective of the certificate they eventually graduate with. The data suggests that these skills account for about 80% of success at the work place or in business, while technical skills account for just 20% or less. 

This is probably the most disruptive initiative ever to be implemented by a higher education establishment. At TAMU, we understand that financial limitations are one of the most important barriers to the quality higher education that people need in order to transform their lives. We are taking advantage of digital platforms and cooperate partnerships to build a campus culture where eligible students shall be empowered with skills and opportunities that they can use right away to start earning money both online and offline while they are studying.  

In partnership with Excel Foundation, TAMU is building partnerships with local private sector companies to ensure that students and graduates have direct access to internship and job placement opportunities. We are also building a database of all public service recruitments in the fields we offer, and incorporating recruitment examination preparation into our teaching. Excel Foundation is a youth empowerment non-profit organization that has been facilitating the career, entrepreneurship, and leadership development of youths since 2008.  

TAMU Innovation Village is a new ecosystem we are building in collaboration with local and international companies. At TAMU Innovation Village, we mentor a large pool of talented professionals to work remotely for our partner companies as remote assistants, digital marketers, developers, graphic designers, data analysts, technical writers, software testers, just to name a few. 

TAMU is a university that understands its leading role in a digital and globalized economy. While preparing graduates to be architects of development in the local communities, we are also preparing them to be competitive on the world stage so that they can freely and easily navigate their way through international graduate studies, international scholarships, and international employment, should they choose to do so. As such, we have built the following innovations into our teaching strategy:  

Our English Language curriculum has been revised and mapped to the IELTS, OET, and TEOFL to help our students pass their chosen International English Language Proficiency test while they are still in school or immediately upon graduation.  

Our French Language curriculum has been revised and mapped to the TEF and TEF Canada to help our students pass their chosen International French Language Proficiency test while they are still in school or immediately upon graduation.  

Our Computer and ICT Foundations curriculum has been revised and mapped to the to the Google IT Support Professional Certificate such that by the end of the first year, all our students will already be Google Certified IT Support Specialists.  

Our Academic Office shall work in close collaboration with international Credential Evaluation Agencies to translate local awards into their foreign equivalents, especially for countries like the USA, UK, and Canada. By having both our locally accredited qualifications and their USA, UK, or Canadian equivalent, our graduates will have an unfair advantage over their peers when it comes to licensure, employment, or graduate admissions.  

TAMU has partnered with Guzzang Investment PLC to create a Start-Up Incubator for TAMU Graduates. TAMU students shall study the principles and practice of Entreprenuership as part of their core curriculum. They shall work in teams to put their entrepreneurship knowledge to use by generating innovative business ideas, prototyping their businesses, and pitching them to a jury. Every year, teams that meet the criteria for the Innovation Award shall receive funding and mentorship to launch and grow their businesses.

We value the full-time teachers who invest time on campus to get students grounded in the theoretical framework of their respective professions. We value even more, the practicing professionals who are busy “doing” and who have a track record of excellence that makes them authorities in their respective walks of life. How do we help our learners to get the best of both worlds? By decentralizing the teaching process. By making use of technology, TAMU brings together learners, on-campus lecturers, and work-based tutors to create a cross-fertilization of knowledge and skills that could never be found in a single classroom or campus.  

In the Middle Ages, the ability to read and write was the most important skill that determined the fate of kings and slaves. It is unfortunate that 400 years later, there are still people in Africa that are illiterate. We are already in the 4th Industrial Revolution where Coding is the new language. Those who teach themselves how to code will have in this age the same advantage that those who could read and write had in the Medieval Period. This is why TAMU has taken the bold step to include Coding as a core course in all our programs, giving it the same importance as English, French, Mathematics, ICT, and Citizenship.  

Technology Infrastructure is a key requirement if we are to meet our goal of decentralizing the teaching process and allowing students to learn on the go. As such, apart from equipping our campus with high speed internet and devices that allow experts to Zoom in from anywhere in the world and gives students access to digital resources, we are also equipping all our students with learning kits that include a laptop and a smartphone with our regularly used Apps installed. We shall be working hand-in-hand with local telecommunications companies to find ways of creating high quality and affordable internet access to our students.  

Beginning with the TAMU Higher Institute of Technology in Limbe-Cameroon, TAMU shall create and manage physical campuses across the African continent. These campuses shall however serve mainly as hubs to a wider network of learners whom we shall empower to receive high quality higher education while living in their communities and while being busy with their families, businesses, and jobs. The blended-learning approach is indispensable if we are to mold graduates that are actively developing solutions to the challenges around them. 

One of the reason why “certificates” is the ultimate goal for most students is that they do not have a higher purpose to capture their imagination and passion. TAMU is filling this gap by pairing each student with a Mentor who is making his/her mark in the discipline that the student is studying, and is committed to serving as a role model for the student throughout their academic journey and beyond. Do you remember the old days of “Pen Pals” before the internet era?. TAMU is bringing back the power of “Pals” in the form of Mentors. 

 We intersperse our curriculum with personal transformation events like Meet The Changemakers, Transformational Retreats, and TEDx Talks as a means of equipping the heads, hearts, and hands of our students.  

 In addition to the core curriculum that leads to formal diplomas and degrees, we work with each student to select from a pool of elective courses and create a unique learning experience that matches their life purpose and career aspirations.   

Through our Graduate Support Office and our Alumni Association, we shall ensure that graduates receive all the assistance they need to excel in life, while remaining part of a community of inspired, motivated, and entrepreneurial professionals that are supporting one another and continuously finding new ways of giving back to their community.