Great wake up call from Anriette for the African universities.
African Universities at least Nigerian universities that I have interacted
with are willing to integrate Internet Governance if they understand  the
subject matter and if it could show some prospects in the area of it been a
research topic or a thematic area.

In a place like Nigeria, where most Internet policy issues still reside
with Civil Societies that have somewhat become social entrepreneurs, it is
difficult to get the university involved when individuals who are exposed
to the Internet Governance discussion do not return to the universities to
propagate Internet Governance discussions.

Until there are direct implications of Internet Governance in the continent
that can be seen in terms of impact on governance, economic life of the
people, it will be difficult of the universities to see it as a serious
issues.

The recent celebration of Mark Zukerberg visit , and subsequent celebration
of FreeBasic in Nigeria show the lack of understanding of Internet
Governance and it's implication to the future of the country and critical
resources.

But as the number of Africans who are active in the Internet Governance
increases in Africa, the Internet Governance discussion will find it's way
into the lecture halls, research topics and university speeches.
I have reached out to my alumni and a few other universities in Nigeria ,
but it has been tough for them to move it forward because they still
struggle to understand Internet Governance issues as it relates to the
African continent, especially when it comes to the issues of domain name
(INRM)

If IG bodies or initiatives can dedicate some resources to engage the
universities in Africa, the effect will be tremendous.

This is my personal opinion and experience.

Benjamin

On Sat, Sep 10, 2016 at 9:13 PM, Sam Lanfranco <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Another way to approach Internet Governance in universities is through
> their research centres. I was slated to give a "birds of a feather"
> presentation on that topic at the 2016 International Society for Third
> Sector Research (http://www.istr.org) conference in Sweden this year but
> there were conflicts with ICANN in Helsinki so we had to drop the idea.
> ISTR is a gathering of many of the non-for-profit sector researchers from
> around the world, and it has regional chapters in Africa, Asia, Latin
> America, etc.
>
> The next ISTR international conference is in Amsterdam, Netherlands,
> 10-13  JULY  2018. ICANN, or stakeholder groups within ICANN, should
> consider engaging ISTR at the global or regional level. Research centre
> research agendas are a sure way to embed new content into university
> curricula. I would be happy to discuss this further, off list, for possible
> activities in 2017.
>
> Sam L, NPOC
>