The Association of African Universities (AAU), the Ethical Data Initiative and the University of Nottingham will be hosting a special edition of the Ethical Data Discussion Series to celebrate Africa Universities’ Week 2025 from (November 10–14), marking its. This year marks the 58th anniversary of the Association of African Universities, underscoring the vital role of African Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) as engines of development. In the spirit of deliberating on critical HE issues, the topic of the new edition will be Data Sovereignty in the Age of AI: Data Policy in Higher Education, and will reprise a highly popular previous episode, diving into the ethical mandates and policy frameworks required for genuine digital sovereignty.

This online event will be held on Thursday, 13 November, 2025 from 13h15-14h45 UTC/GMT.

The rapid integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into African higher education has initiated a fundamental struggle between innovation and institutional control, placing data sovereignty at the critical battleground for HEIs. As universities feed sensitive student records and proprietary research into external, global, cloud-based AI platforms—often developed by US or European “Big Tech”—they face an immediate challenge rooted in what is termed algorithmic colonialism.

The core issue is a loss of control. When proprietary data is used to train these “black box” AI models, it raises urgent “data extraction” concerns about the ownership of Intellectual Property (IP). This exploitation is compounded by serious jurisdictional conflicts; for instance, how does the US CLOUD Act, which can compel US-based tech companies to access data regardless of its location, conflict with emerging African data protection laws like the Malabo Convention, undermining local governance and autonomy?.

Furthermore, the problem is intensified by systemic algorithmic bias. External models are frequently trained on non-African datasets, leading to a failure to recognize African languages, cultural norms, and social realities. With less than 3% of global computer vision datasets including African faces, the panel will address the strategic question: How can AI models be made culturally and linguistically relevant, and what is the intense effort required by researchers to curate quality data for Africa’s over 2,000 languages?.

To achieve digital autonomy, HEIs must transition from being mere consumers to active creators of AI. This requires building sovereign AI capacity, exemplified by efforts like the Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery (MIND) Institute at Wits University in South Africa. The discussion will explore practical, privacy-preserving solutions for secure collaboration, such as the use of Federated Learning (FL), a model demonstrated in the African health sector to diagnose conditions without centralizing patient data.

Ultimately, data policy is no longer just an IT issue; it is a strategic imperative for preserving academic integrity, public trust in science and research, student trust, and digital sovereignty. The panel will discuss the comprehensive governance frameworks African HEIs must implement to ensure human accountability and data ethics literacy become an operational reality.

Panellists

Romola Thumbadoo has worked in the federal government (criminal, social and Indigenous justice) in Canada (20 years), and at the grass roots level with the Circle of All Nations global eco peace community founded by Late North American Indigenous Elder William Commanda (20 years). She did her masters in the study of Detribalisation in the novels of South African writer, Peter Abrahams, and completed her doctoral and postdoctoral research on William Commanda’s discourse and environmental legacy. She is a Research Associate at Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre (GCRC), at Carleton University, where she served as EA to the late Professor D.R. Fraser Taylor for 8 years.

Christopher Musodza is an IT research and policy consultant with over eighteen years of experience at the intersection of technology, law, and human rights. His work focuses on cybersecurity, artificial intelligence policy, internet governance, and digital sovereignty in Africa. He has consulted for leading organisations, including the University of Pretoria Centre for Human Rights, Media Institute of Southern Africa, HIVOS Southern Africa, and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Christopher holds advanced degrees in artificial intelligence, computer science, and law and has completed fellowship certifications with the Centre for AI and Digital Policy (CAIDP), Microsoft, and the McCoy Family Centre for Ethics in Society at Stanford. His current research examines China’s digital influence in Africa and its implications for data privacy and information rights.

Cornelia Malherbe is Director of Research Contracts and Compliance at Stellenbosch University, with over 20 years of experience in research management. She plays a pivotal role in research contract negotiations and remedial actions. Her role in research governance, compliance and risk management is instrumental, and she developed and implemented several critical policies, including Research Data Management and the Position Statement on the Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence in Research and Teaching-Learning-Assessment.  She is recognised for her leadership at the national and international levels in Research Contracts, IP Management, Compliance, and Research Integrity. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Rector’s Award (3 times), the Chancellor’s Award (2018), the National DSI-SARIMA Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Research and Innovation Management Profession (2019) and in 2025 received the International Professional Recognition (IPRC SRM). She holds an academic appointment as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Industrial Engineering, where her research directly addresses complex problems from a research compliance perspective.

Moderator: Kathryn Bailey is a Professor of Research Governance Partnerships at the University of Exeter and also serves as Operations Director at the Ethical Data Initiative.