Acknowledging that “Western and Central African countries suffer from a manifest lack of human resources and skills in the domains of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STIM), and in the disciplines related to Agriculture and Health”, the World Bank launched in 2013 the ACE “African Centres of Excellence” initiative Its primary objective is to meet the demand of the work market in terms of the required skills in the specific domains suffering from the lack of qualified manpower. As a result, this initiative aims at impacting development, economic growth and poverty reduction in the region.
From an operational viewpoint, the development objective of the ACE project is to “help its beneficiaries to promote regional specialisation within the participating universities in the domains that meet the regional development challenges, as well to reinforce their capacities to provide high-quality trainings and run applied research programs.”
At the end of a process that was highly competitive, open, rigorous, transparent, based on merit and in conformity with the highest international norms, under technical supervision guaranteed by the Association of African Universities (AUA), 19 centres of excellence have been selected in seven participating countries of Central and West Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo. The Cameroonian ACE is the CETIC (African Centre of Excellence in Technologies, Information and Communication) of the University of Yaounde I, located at the National Advanced School of Engineering of Yaounde. CETIC has been jointly implemented by the Cameroonian Government and the World Bank.
Given ACEs’ general philosophy and given the specificities of its domain of competence, the CETIC aims at contributing, in the domain of TICs, to the bringing down of the deficit of highly qualified engineers and scholars from which central and western African regions suffer.
From an operational perspective, the development objective of the CETIC is to promote the emergence of excellence-level trainings in masters and PhDs programs, as well as the development of R&D related projects. This will support the production, in this African sub-region, of high-added-value electronic services à, which answer to societies’ big challenges.
With that end in view, the CETIC offers privileged conditions to receive high-level trainings, with a team of professors coming from academic and professional world in Cameroon, in the sub-region, and also from prestigious institutions in Europe, Asia and North America.
In addition to senior lecturers, students will benefit from a tutorial system, handled by post-doctoral fellows finishing PhD students. A series of conferences are included in the programs and will be animated by renowned STIC experts.
1. Specialisation program
The specialisation programs that are open during the 2015-2016 academic season are:
- Computer engineering and Telecommunications with three specialties:
- Software Engineering
- Information Systems
- Networks and Telecommunications.
- Mathematical Modeling and Scientific Computing, with three specialties:
- Industrial Mathematics
- Mathematical Modeling for Information Transport
- Mathematical Biology
- Mathematical Modeling for Economics and Finance
- Mechatronics, with one specialty: Embedded Electronic Systems
The call for application for the recruitment of students at the Masters level M1 (resp. Master level M2, PhD) is open to any candidate with a Bachelor degree (Master 1, Master 2) or any equivalent degree, in a specialty corresponding to the applied program. This degree should be delivered by an accredited university.
Direct admission to the second year of Master is recommended only to holders of an engineer or a master degree in ICT, and who want to specialize.
Female and international (non Cameroonian) students are highly encouraged.
2. Application Documents
The application to be submitted must have the following documents :
- Completed and signed application form, that can be downloaded at the following address : Download the Application Form
- A corvery letter addressed to the CETIC Coordinator
- A research progress report for PhD candidates (Download the form)
- A Curriculum Vitae
- Certified copies and transcripts since admission to the university
- A detailed programmes and course contents followed in ICT (5 to 6 lines maximum per course) for attended and validated STIC courses.
- Certified photocopies of Baccalauréat/GCEA-level and academic certificates (to be scanned, uploaded and sent as .pdf or .JPEG files)
- Three referee reports at least two referees must be teachers who had the applicant as a trainee ( Download the form), sent by the referee to secretariat@cetic.cm. Avoid conflicts of interest (relatives, …).
- Recent ID photos
- A copy of national ID or passport documents
N.B: It is highly recommended for international students to update their passports as soon as possible, in order to shorten the administrative procedure after their eventual admission.
Note: Don’t wait for referees’ reports before sending your application. Send it to secretariat@cetic.cm as soon as all the other documents are ready.
3. School Fees
School fees are set to 1 000 000 XAF annually, payable in two instalments.
No student who satisfies the academic requirements for his/her admission will be excluded for financial reasons. To this CETIC offers various solutions, including financial aid, loans and scholarships for students.
4. Languages
The official languages at CETIC are English and French. Special measures will be taken to make sure that a student mastering one of these languages can follow the courses:
– pedagogical documents will be available in both languages
– language courses in English and French will be offered.
5. Practical Information
- Deadline for receipt of applications : 24 October 2015.
Applications should be submitted via email to the following address: secretariat@cetic.cm