4 Member States undertake to provide the necessary resources to enable their Universities to develop quality post-graduate programmes through the provision of the necessary teaching and research requisites such as qualified staff, physical infrastructures, library holdings, equipment and in particular scientific and information technology equipment. (D) SPHERES OF CO-OPERATION Member States agree that mounting robust post-graduate programmes in all required fields is too costly for each Member State to pursue on a realistically sustainable basis and therefore that it is essential to pool the Region's resources in order to establish high quality post-graduate programmes. To this end, Member States agree to recommend to their universities: a) to co-operate in the design of academic programmes where appropriate, in particular in programmes which are jointly taught; b) to establish links between and among themselves bilaterally and multilaterally for purposes of joint or split-site teaching, collaborative research and consultancy work, and for other academic activities where appropriate. The format, content and implementing modalities shall be devised by the universities concerned between themselves; c) to collaborate in the production of teaching and learning materials such as text books, computer software and others. This would be a step towards harmonising academic programmes in the Region as necessary; d) to promote student and staff exchange programmes negotiated on a bilateral and multilateral basis by the sending and receiving universities for educational purposes and to promote cultural ties and engender commitment to the Region; e) to increasingly make use of external examiners from the Region as this shall not only contribute towards the building of a regional community of scholars, but shall also lead to the development of comparable standards in higher education in the Region; f) to encourage and support the creation of regional professional associations to enable staff to exchange views, ideas and experiences on their disciplines, and thus enable them to develop programmes which are of good quality and relevant to the development of the Region. The associations would also be fora for con tributing to the development of regional policy and co-operation in higher education; g) to create an association of university Vice Chancellors in the Region as a forum for contributing to the development of regional policy and co-operation in university education and training and research and development; h) that in order to create and maintain a data base, details of the co-operation arrangements shall be notified to the sub-Sector by the universities concerned. 13