Masters courses are to be introduced at the three African Universities in the PREA project for capacity building in education and training and to promote sustainability concepts in the design, construction and occupancy of buildings. The long term target is to train academicians for more research and further propagation of these ideas and concepts in subsequent courses even after the end of the project’s scheduled time of three years. The aim is to eventually spread these ideas and concepts throughout the entire continent, by cooperation of the three African Universities and by networking with other African institutions engaged in this area.

The masters courses are supposed to use the expertise gained on a similar project in Europe called TAREB (Teaching about Renewable Energy in Buildings) but will be tailored to suit the local environment and to reflect specific demands of the country in which they are offered and taught as well as the technologies that can be easily made available there. The Masters programs will generally have some compulsory core modules and optional specialist modules some of which will be tailored to reflect local demands.

At Uganda Martyrs University, the Masters’ course is planned to be introduced in phases step by step. According to Mark Olweny, the assistant Dean of Faculty of Building and Technology, who is also the local PREA project coordinator there, the project would be phased in, in two steps starting with a Graduate Diploma in Environmental Design to run either as a one year full-time course or as a two year part-time course. The part-time program, 50% of which can be taken in form of off-campus modules, is to be aimed at applicants possessing the equivalent of the basic three-year undergraduate program currently run by the same University as Bachelor of Science in Building Design and Technology (B. Sc. BDT). The second phase will be the actual Masters program will be called Master of Environmental Design (M. Sc. ED). It will consist of specialist modules and will be aimed at professionals who have either completed the full five years Bachelor of Architecture course or have upgraded their basic three year course with the Graduate Diploma. Some people with other professional qualifications e. g. in Engineering, Urban Design or Quantity Surveying will also be eligible to apply directly for the one year full-time Masters. Basic concepts in environmental design, will already have been introduced at undergraduate level, will develop students’ interest in this area and serve as a “catchment area” for students and professionals.

The new Masters course at Witwatersrand University (WITS) will aim at both students and professionals. According to plans already under way at WITS, the Masters course will be associated with four separate postgraduate activities namely organization of short open certificate courses and modules in collaboration with other institutions such as Stellenbosch University, establishing new “Continuing Professional Development” (CPD) courses for established professionals, incorporation of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy research into existing Masters and PhD work by research and thesis, as well as introduction of taught modules into Bachelor of Architectural Sciences (BAS(HONS)). There will be two masters versions namely the Professional Masters of Architecture (M. ARCH(PROF)) and the Master of Architecture specializing in Housing (M. ARCH(HOUS)). As an unexpected opportunity the PREA project coordinator at WITS, Daniel Irurah, was requested to develop a teaching module on Renewable Energy, in the process of establishing of a new Master of Philosophy (M. Phil) on Renewable Energy due to start at Stellenbosch University later this year (July

2007). PREA has been identified as one of the key strengths of WITS in its collaboration efforts with other institutions in South Africa.

Dar es Salaam University has established in co-operation with Ardhi University, Dar es Salaam, the new Master course “Renewable Energy”, which will start for the first time in September 2008. It has all the necessary manpower and teaching facilities for the course to be able to take off this year. Existing departments which are ready to collaborate in establishing the new Masters course include from University of Dar es Salaam Faculty of Civil Engineering and the Built Environment, the Department of Energy in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Chemical Engineering and the Department of Electrical Power in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology and from Ardhi University Department of Architecture in the Faculty of Architecture and Planning (FAP).

2. Results / Discussion

After 30 months of the three-year-project have passed there could be reached most of the targets and many things were achieved that would not have happened without PREA:

• Initially three universities in sub-Saharan Africa have decided to implement masters courses in the area of renewable energies energy and energy efficient buildings during the project duration. Meanwhile the number of universities has increased to 5 by Ardhi University joining University of Dar es Salaam, and Sustainability Institute from Stellenbosch University joining Witwatersrand University.

• Six workshops about sustainable energy supply and about low cost and high comfort buildings have been carried out with active participation of key actors from the three African countries..

• The network of African institutions working in the areas of energy and building could be improved, last not least by the website www. ises. org/PREA.

Thus the PREA Project has already proved to be an important event in the development of energy consciousness in Africa. The response to the Workshops has been extremely good. The questionnaires given to both participants and organizers show, that people concerned are very satisfied with the stages and milestones that have been reached so far. Project websites (shown hereunder) have been established, Workshop handbooks with all the papers presented at Workshops have been published and distributed to workshop participants and other interested parties, a CD summarizing all activities has been developed and as requested by the European Commission, a PowerPoint presentation containing “publishable summary slides” has been produced and updated. The most important fact however is that through this PREA project, the issue of energy efficiency and renewable energy in buildings in Africa has obtained a forum through which it will be more specifically and efficiently addressed within an integrated building design and construction approach. Moreover, African universities have had a unique opportunity at South-South collaboration among each other and South — North collaboration with their European counterparts.

3. Conclusions

The PREA project, although scheduled to run for three years, is meant to have a long lasting impact in the development of a new energy consciousness in Africa. It has carried out six Workshops successfully, sensitizing African governments’ officials, policy makers, decision makers and implementers as well as regulatory agencies about the importance of energy efficiency and application of renewable energy technologies in buildings as a way of fighting poverty and at the same time

preserving the environment for posterity. In short the PREA project is a catalyst for sustainable development and poverty eradication in Africa. It will help Africa achieve some of the millennium development goals sooner rather than later. The implementation of the masters courses at the three African universities has started a sustainable development.

4. Acknowledgement

The European Union supported 50% of the PREA budget through their program Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE), subprogram. The German International Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) financially supported Dortmund University by matching funds. The other European partner universities and ISES, are meeting their share of the budget from their own resources. Contributions of the African University partners were realized in form of local organization of the seminars and arrangements for accommodating the Masters’ programs. The Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA), Johannesburg, and the Sustainability Institute, Stellenbosch University, kindly made their premises available for the South African Workshops.

References

Websites:

Websites associated with the PREA projects have been established by ISES and by the other project participant universities.

http://cms. ises. om/index. xsp

http://www. ises. org/PREA

http://www. bauwesen. tu-dortmund. de/ka/Homepage PREA/Deutsch/Home D/HOME PREA D. htm

http://hermes. wits. ac. za/www/Conferences/PREA-WITS

http://grbes. phys .uoa. gr/prea/index. htm

http://www. univ-lr. fr/poles/sciences/formations/gc/master afrique. html

http://www. sonnenseite. com/index. php? pageID=80&news:oid=n6416&svnlink:docID=&svnlink:linkI D=1&template=news detail. html