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The Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF), French for the "Association of Universities of the Francophonie", is a global network of French-speaking higher education and research institutions.

Originally founded in Montreal in 1961, as the Association des universités partiellement ou entièrement de langue française (AUPELF), the AUF is a multilateral institution which supports the co-operation and solidarity between the university institutions working in French. It concerns the French-speaking countries of Africa, of the Arab world, of Southeast Asia, of Central and Eastern Europe and of the Caribbean. It has 774 members (public and private universities, institutes of higher education, centers or research institutions, institutional networks and networks of administrators associated with university life) distributed in the countries of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie.

The AUF is present in 91 countries, through its regional offices, its centers of access to information, its campuses numerical or its institutes of formation. It receives funding from La Francophonie. Its headquarters are located in Montreal, Canada, on the campus of the University of Montreal.

History

 * Origins: in 1959, Jean-Marc Léger, canadian journalist at Le Devoir and André Bachand, public relations director of the University of Montreal voice the idea of a world-wide organisation that would create a link between French-speaking universities.


 * The Beginning: on September 13, 1961, in Montreal, some 150 representative of the French-speaking world unite themselves to create the foundation of what will become l'Association des universités partiellement ou entièrement de langue française (AUPELF), French for "Association of partially or entirely French-speaking universities."


 * Expansion Era: in 1987, during the heads of state's Summit in Quebec, an "exchange university" project is put forward under the name of UREF (Université des Réseaux d'Expression Français, French for "University of the French Expression Networks"). Its purpose is to create a whole of university networks about research and education. In november 1993, the AUPELF becomes the AUPELF-UREF. It is in april 1998, in Beyrouth, that the AUPELF-UREF finally becomes the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF).


 * Reforms: in order to answer Moncton action plan's request, the AUF engages reforms in three fields in 1999:
 * the modification of its status,
 * the administrative organisation,
 * and the reform of its programmes.

It is in 2005 that the AUF endows a programming planned over four years, to answer the goals and priorities registered into the decennial strategic agreement of the institutional French-speaking world. This agreement, adopted in 2004 by the member States of the French-speaking world, sets the main principles and strategies of the insitutional French-speaking world and also controls its activities.

The Authorities

 * Seven apparatus form the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie:
 * 1) The general assembly: it is the main organ of the AUF. Every four years, the 774 members of the network of French-speaking higher education and research institutions gather and decide the future goals and strategies for the four next years. The general assembly also controls the actions of the board of directors aswell as his members behaviour.
 * 2) The associative council: its purpose is not only to intensify the solidarity between higher education and research institutions of the Agency, but also to submit them the objectives pursued.
 * 3) The board of directors: it is formed by university representatives and by States and government representatives. It is the management organ.
 * 4) The scientific council: it decides on the evaluation methodology of the AUF programs and garantees their academic quality. For this purpose, its members are chosen for their technical and profesional skills in the field of culture, science and technology.
 * 5) The president: he is elected by the general assembly and is at the head of the associative council aswell as the board of directors. The term of office is four years and is nonrenewable.
 * 6) The rector: His mandate lasts four years like the president's. But the rector is elected by the board of directors, not by the general assembly. His main function is to make concrete the commitments of the higher education and research institutions.
 * 7) The development and co-operation university Fund: it is the UAF's rector who is in charge of this fund, which aim is to provide the solidarity and co-operation actions financing.

Fields of Action

 * The main fields of action of the AUF are distributed between four scientific administrations, each of them aiming at a specific goal. These four branches are:
 * 1) Language and communication Management: this section supports the development of the French language through its tuition and its instruction in the scientific disciplines. Another goal is to promote multilingualism and cultural diversity by stimulating the production, the diffusion and the teaching of scientific knowledge in French. In addition, the Department of language and communication has a coordinating role in research projects, training and curricular reform in the linguistic, cultural, literary or education field. Moreover, it monitors meetings or scientific conferences, and highlights the issue of edition and more particularly online publication. Finally, it takes part in the improvement of the knowledge of the French-speaking world and the understanding of the impact of cultural and linguistic multiplicity on blossoming of societies and populations. With more than 2250 specialists, this direction is the largest one.
 * 2) The economic development Management: this division is in charge of the fund collection campaign. It also strenghten the partnership relations of the Agency and manages also its fame and image. On this purpose, it has to enhance the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie's achievements, actions and beneficiaries of these actions.
 * 3) The scientific skills reinforcement Management: it must arrange the scientific policies linked to the scientific departments and the regional offices. It also has to support those scientific policies by creating and administrating devices such as French-speaking digital campuses or institutes. In addition, it aims to organize the management to optimize the research actions in the spirit of the four-year programming. The scientific skills reinforcement Management has also been given the responsibility to improve the evaluation of the Agency and the French-speaking scientific community in the sets of themes which are allocated to it. These sets of themes are the following ones: constitutional state, democracy, company, environment, water, energy, climate, sustainable development and well-being of populations. By the assistance on research and popularization, aswell as the support on formation, including that of trainers, it supports the projects of the adherent universities regarding these various fundamental subjects.
 * 4) The knowledge economy and teaching innovation Management: it is given the responsibility to support the use of communication and information technologies in higher education and in the research field. Through that, it grants a support for the establishments members to allow them, by means of a strategy, a better digital development, which is vector of knowledge. To sensitize with digital, this Department offers a training to master the TICE (Technologies of Information and Communication for education) in favor of the educative community (teachers, students and staff). The constant progress of these digital tools, put at the disposal of academic cicrcles, makes it possible to contribute to higher education's improvment.

AUF's Policy of Partnership

 * The Agence universitaire de la Francophonie decided to develop partnerships. For this reason it defined three specific objectives :
 * 1) To establish more universities in the South and giving them a significant role for the development.
 * 2) To develop association between the AUF, its member institutions and all the actors of development (States, foundations, ONG, companies and private sector, territorial collectivities, etc).
 * 3) To increase its action as regards development while basing itself on the following axes:
 * put the organization and Agency's knowledge at the profit of the projects serving the development and set up by international organizations, States, companies,…
 * promote the scientific evaluation of the South,
 * and use resourceful tools as regards university and scientific co-operation, and to measure and study the results of those devices.

Having operational establishments in the whole world, and having the power through its network to mobilize several hundreds of research and higher education establishments, the Agence universitaire de la francophonie is often requisitioned for:
 * The field of influence unceasingly growing and the notoriety increasingly larger of the AUF, in fields such as higher education and research, enable him to implement ambitious and recognized programs. The quality and importance of the partners who support the AUF, in which, more particularly, the States, the regional and international organizations (European Union, UNESCO, the World Bank,...) and even the partners belonging to the economic sphere, have built the Agency's fame.
 * co-operation projects management,
 * the realization of technical examinations and of evaluations,
 * the production of services regarding technologies of information and communication,
 * and to put in networks actors of the development from all the horizons.

Support to Electronic Scientific Journal Creation

 * The Agence universitaire de la Francophonie set up in 2001 a helping device to create French-speaking electronic science journals. This device allows to use logistic material as well as methodological tools. French-speaking digital campuses were created to support the development of the TIC (technologies of information and communication) in the universities of the south. They are governed by the language scientific communication's Department. They also propose workshops of formation to the presentation of scientific articles and to the publication of those. And finally, a financial support is planned for the reviews selected within the scope of special projects.

The AUF Worldwide

 * The AUF's education office and headquarters are in Montreal. Another education office as well as central services have been created in Paris. And finally, regional offices have been established in Montreal, Port-au-Prince, Dakar, Yaoundé, Antananarivo, Hanoï, Beirut, Brussels and Bucharest.

1961-2011: 50 Years of Unstinting Devotion

 * 2011 marks an important date, since it corresponds to the 50th birthday of the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie. In one half-century, the association took a world scale importance. To mark the occasion, the AUF decided to promote the Francophonie throughout the year 2011 by means of special events devoted to the 50 years of the Agency and celebrating its role and its advance as a federator of the French-speaking scientific community and academic agent. These festivities will put the emphasis on all that the AUF achieved for higher education and research during these five decades.

Researchers Network

 * French language studies
 * Lexicology, terminology, translation
 * Sociolinguistics and language dynamics
 * Teledetection
 * Erosion and management of waters
 * Economic and development analysis
 * Demography
 * Entrepreneurship
 * Biotechnology
 * Agrifood engineering
 * Vector parasitic studies
 * Fundamental laws
 * Health sciences

Institutional Networks

 * Veterinary medicine (AEEVTPLF)
 * Management (CIDEGEF)
 * Medicine (CIDMEF)
 * Pharmacy (CIDPHARMEF)
 * Law (CIFDUF)
 * Agricultural and food sciences (CIDEFA)
 * Engineering (CITEF)
 * Journalism (Théophraste)
 * Dentistry (CIDCDF)
 * Social sciences and humanities (AFELSH)
 * Information sciences (AIESI)
 * Science and techniques (CIRUISEF)
 * Urbanization (APERAU)
 * Training of trainers (RIFEFF)