The Pan African University (PAU) is the culmination of continental initiatives of the Commission of the African Union to revitalize higher education and research in Africa, under the Second Decade of Education for Africa and the consolidated Plan of Action of Science and Technology for Africa. It will exemplify excellence, enhance the attractiveness and global competitiveness of African higher education and research and establish the African University at the core of Africa’s development. 

The PAU will greatly boost the population and retention of high-level human resources and quality knowledge outputs and be able to attract the best intellectual capacity from all over the world. Africa acknowledges the fact that social and economic development is not possible without substantive investment in higher education and research. The PAU was launched as the African Union (AU) undertook the evaluation of the Second Decade of Education for Africa. 

The African Union Commission identified critical themes within the five institutes of the Pan African University, as key to the development of Africa and attainment of the vision of the African Union. These are hosted in the different PAU Institutes as follows:

• Water and Energy Sciences (including Climate Change) (PAUWES, Algeria);
• Basic Science, Technology and Innovation (PAUSTI, Kenya); 
• Life and Earth Sciences (including Health and Agriculture) (PAULESI, Nigeria);
• Governance, Humanities and Social Sciences (PAUGHSS, Cameroon);
• and Space Sciences (PAUSS, South Africa).

The PAU Rectorate is based in Yaoundé, Cameroon.