3rd Edition of the Graduation at U-Magis, Bevala (Madagascar)

From May 19th to May 26th, I was invited, by the leadership of University Magis in Madagascar, to attend the celebration of the 35th, 25th and 20th anniversary of the four of seven Malagasy Jesuit institutes, on behalf of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities-Africa Madagascar (AJCU-AM). The celebration culminated with the graduation of University Magis, the umbrella university which gathers together the seven institutes of higher education in Madagascar. The headquarters of the new University is located at Bevalala in the outskirts of Antananarivo and covers more than 37 acres of land. In the medium run, two institutes (ETS[1], and Samis-Esic) will join the two ones which are already located in Bevalala. Then in the long run, the three remaining institutes (the Philosophate, ITSFX and ITSA Fianarantsoa) will move progressively to the new location.

The celebrations started on Wednesday may 22nd until Saturday, may 25th when the graduation took place. On Wednesday 22nd, a major conference was organized. It gathered students from the seven institutes. After the welcome message by Fr. Provincial, Fulgence Ratsimbazafy, a presentation of the U-Magis project followed, before the conference by Fr. François Pazisnewende Kaboré, on “AJCU-AM et UMagis au cœur de la transformation de notre monde”: how AJCU-AM can learn from the experience of U-Magis and how U-Magis can benefit from AJCU-AM? In the afternoon, after some beautiful cultural performance, a panel on “Transforming the World” was organized with the participation of top lay collaborators. On Thursday and Friday, students mostly competed in different fields (soccer, basket-ball, athletism, petanque). Graduation on Saturday gathered close to two thousands people, including, graduating students, family and friends, etc. There were about 322 graduates.

Fr. Kaboré, speech on “AJCU-AM et UMagis au cœur de la transformation de notre monde »

One is first positively impressed by the energy and enthusiasm of the leadership of U-Magis: Fr. Jacques Mananto (Coordinator of U-Magis), Fr. Hilarion Rakotoarison (Director at Fianarantsoa), and Fr. Jacques Randrianary (Director of SAMIS-ESIC). The project U-Magis benefits also from the full support of the Provincial of Madagascar. It also has enough land for growth and Jesuits are expected from the civil society to continue making a significant contribution to education in general and to higher education in particular. The various programs of the seven institutes would develop in synergy and could benefit from additional programs, mostly in entrepreneurship. The fact that Jesuits run and own five high schools is also a major advantage for the supply of students of good quality to the schools of higher education. With respect to the quality of the management and of the teaching, the Malagasy Province could continue preparing young Jesuits to staff U-Magis. In order to insure that U-Magis is open to the larger network of AJCU-AM and IAJU (the International Association of Jesuit Universities), U-Magis is open to and welcomes various types of productive collaboration including professors exchange, students exchange such as the Magis program. Finally, the U-Magis project started back in 2008. To that extent, the current and future initiatives on higher education at the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar (JCAM) can learn from the incremental and steady approach adopted by University Magis.

 

[1] ETS : Etablissement Technique Supérieur (Amparibe, Antananarivo, 1983), EPSA : Ecole Professionnelle Supérieure Agricole (Bevalala, Antananarivo, 1993), ITS : Institut Technique Supérieur François-Xavier (Antady, Fianarantsoa, 1993), SAMIS-ESIC : Ecole Supérieure de l’Information et de la Communication (Amparibe, Antananarivo, 2001), ESBPTP : Ecole Supérieure de Bâtiment et Travaux Publics (Bevalala, Antananarivo, 2012), and Institut Technique Supérieur Agricole (Antady, Fianarantsoa, 2017).