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Africa: Higher Education Must Be Higher Priority
AfricaFocus Bulletin
March 17, 2015 (150317)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
"In 2011, the average gross rate of tertiary education enrolment in
Africa was 8% against a world average of 27%. Even with those low
figures, demand for university admission continues to exceed
capacity, and public universities are under increasing pressure to
admit more students than current staff and infrastructure would
allow. ... [even so] In most African countries, the increase in
tertiary enrolment has not translated into a comparable improvement
in employment opportunities. ... Indeed, there are growing
complaints by employers that graduates are poorly prepared for the
workplace." - Concept paper for African Higher Education Summit
The African Higher Education Summit, held in Dakar on March 10-12,
clearly marks a new level of consensus on the need to give much
higher priority to the higher education sector, and in particular
its significance for economic development. The range of participants
was impressive, both from the higher education sector itself and
from government, philanthropic and multilateral agencies. The
speeches and conference documents outline a wide-ranging and
ambitious agenda.
Yet at least to non-specialist readers, such as your editor, there
seems to be no comparable consensus on how the multiple stakeholders
will find the resources to implement such an ambitious agenda. Nor
is it clear which among them will take the lead in responding to the
call for new levels of quality as well as continued quantitative
expansion in higher education. Without answers to these questions,
it is hard to discern whether higher education will in practice get
the higher priority that the Summit called for.
[Note: Many AfricaFocus readers have expertise on this subject from
first-hand experience. If you are among them and there are important
sources with insight on this that you consider particularly helpful
for the non-specialist, please send links to africafocus@igc.org and
they can be added to the web version of this Bulletin.]
Additional relevant resources, including documents prepared for the
Summit and other related studies, are available at
http://summit.trustafrica.org/
A draft declaration and action plan is available at
http://tinyurl.com/n2wkmpq
Direct links to a few selected other documents include the
following:
Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, "African Higher Education Summit: Revitalizing
Higher Education for Africa's Future." Summit Framing Paper, March
2015
http://tinyurl.com/loubrw5
"African Higher Education Summit - insight into the challenges & way
forward" E-book produced by Trust Africa and Mail & Guardian Africa,
11 Mar 2015
http://tinyurl.com/pehpf5h
Association for the Development of Education in Africa, "Stimulating
Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Development in Africa: An
Urgent Post-2015 Agenda," Policy Brief, September 2014
http://tinyurl.com/lp5pyav
"Recommendations for Reinvigorating the Humanities in Africa,"
submitted by The Forum on the Humanities in Africa of the African
Humanities Program, University of South Africa, June 7, 2014
http://tinyurl.com/otjfqne
"African Research Universities Alliance launched," University World
News, Mar 10, 2015
http://tinyurl.com/o2nwyem
Universities included in the initial launch include Lagos,
Ibadan and Obafemi Awolowo in Nigeria, the University of
Ghana, Makerere University in Uganda, the University of
Nairobi in Kenya, the University of Dar es Salaam in
Tanzania, the National University of Rwanda, Université
Cheikh Anta Diop in Senegal, and in South Africa the
universities of the Witwatersrand, Cape Town, Stellenbosch,
Pretoria, KwaZulu-Natal and Rhodes.
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Revitalizing Higher Education for Africa's Future
Continental Summit
March 10-12, 2015, Dakar, Senegal
Concept Paper
Introduction
Africa has witnessed tremendous growth in its higher education and
research sphere over the last few decades. This is to a large extent
a manifestation of the recognition by African stakeholders,
including political leaders of the value of higher education in
achieving their visions of prosperity, peace and integration.
International agencies, once sceptical about the value of university
education in Africa's social economic development, are now among the
chief advocates of revitalisation of higher education in Africa.
Increasing enrolment rates have meant that educational quality has
often suffered, thus further compromising the relevance and
excellence of the sector. The rising number of government and
private agencies involved in higher education has also brought some
critical issues to the fore. A multiplicity of educational
initiatives will require that the higher education and research
community work together to ensure coherence and to identify
synergies that will optimise the use of resources.
However, the renewed focus on the importance of higher education to
the continent's development presents an opportunity to work together
towards a common vision -- ensuring that efforts to create a robust
African higher education and research space are both relevant and
responsive. This goal is integral to the African Union (AU)
development agenda, whose theme is the "Africa We Want in 2063."
Indeed, strategic alliances must be established across social and
economic sectors in order to develop the human capacity needed to
achieve this new future. It is widely recognized that higher
education is critical to promoting faster technological growth,
value addition to raw materials and natural resources, improving
countries' ability to maximise economic output, and building human
capabilities. Indeed, consensus is emerging among African
governments, the business community, scholars and pan-African
development agencies that higher education can facilitate national
development and regional integration -- and that it has an important
role in fostering citizenship and building democratic societies.
African institutions such as the Association of African
Universities, CODESRIA (the Council for the Development of Social
Science in Africa), the African Academy of Sciences and ADEA (the
Association for the Development of Education in Africa) are some of
the critical actors advocating for the revitalisation of the African
higher education sector. Similarly, a number of African countries
and sub-regional bodies such as the Inter-University Council of
Eastern Africa, the Southern Africa Universities Association, the
Arab Association of Universities, and CAMES (Conseil africain et
malgache pour l'enseignement supérieur) have been organising higher
education programmes with the aim of transforming the sector.
Initiatives at the continental level include the AU Plan of Action
for the second decade of education for Africa (2006-2015), which
calls for revitalisation of higher education and research and
emphasizes enhanced intra-African collaboration and more robust
linkages between higher education and research. As indicated above,
the AU Africa Agenda 2063 identified human capacity development as
key to achieving the collective vision of peace, integration,
prosperity and improved standing in the global economy. To be sure,
higher education has also been part of regional integration
processes. The African Union Commission (AUC) framework for
harmonization aims to foster academic integration and to bridge the
gap between disparate educational systems and is part of an effort
to create a distinct, globally competitive African higher education
space. The revised Arusha Convention calls for a similar effort
regarding the recognition of academic qualifications, and the
Nyerere Programme is providing an excellent mechanism for
strengthening institutional cooperation by promoting portability of
degrees across Africa. Finally, the Harmonisation and Tuning Project
aims to enhance comparability of academic qualifications across the
continent and equivalencies across regions.
The harmonization of higher education incorporates a strong focus on
establishing effective accreditation and quality assurance
mechanisms. An African Quality Rating Mechanism is being established
by the AUC to encourage higher education institutions to voluntarily
assess their performance against a set of criteria. Meanwhile, the
AUC has launched the process of establishing an African Quality
Assurance and Accreditation Framework. Another aspect of these
efforts is to assure the effective networking of quality assurance
and accreditation agencies.
The promotion of regional collaboration and intra-African
cooperation in quality assurance is critical to developing
comparable methodologies and to strengthening the space of higher
education in Africa. Importantly, there is a strong need to mobilise
stakeholders in the sector around these initiatives to ensure their
ownership and subsequent success.
Challenges in African Higher Education
The last decades have seen a significant increase in student
enrolment in African universities in order to absorb the increasing
demand for higher education fuelled by the massification of primary
and secondary education. Private higher education, which accounted
for 22% of higher education students on the continent in 2006, is
growing faster in many African countries, due in part to major
policy reforms carried out by governments. The deregulation of the
higher education sector has resulted in contradictory outcomes.
While the expansion has led to increased access, there is a concern
that enrolment growth under conditions of limited resources has
contributed to lower quality. Moreover, despite high increases in
tertiary education enrolment, there is still unmet demand. In 2011,
the average gross rate of tertiary education enrolment in Africa was
8% against a world average of 27%. Even with those low figures,
demand for university admission continues to exceed capacity, and
public universities are under increasing pressure to admit more
students than current staff and infrastructure would allow.
Most institutions have been unable to recruit additional academic
staff to cope with the increased enrolment, either because of
shortage of funds or unavailability of qualified candidates. The
staff shortages in many African universities have been compounded by
the fact that the average age of faculty members is relatively high.
Staff shortages have been also exacerbated by the brain drain. There
is a difficulty in recruiting and retaining faculty with senior
academic qualifications and research experience. Reasons for this
include limited postgraduate opportunities, low graduation rates and
discouraging conditions of service. Many higher education
institutions in Africa do not yet have adequate research
capabilities and their contributions have been found to be less
relevant to development needs. The slow expansion of postgraduate
education has seriously constrained innovation as most research
skills are commonly acquired during master's and doctoral study. The
lack of academic staff with PhDs has adversely affected the quality
and depth of the instruction provided to undergraduate students --
and the ability to provide graduate students with adequate
supervision.
As a whole, Africa spends less than 0.5% of its GDP on research, a
level of funding that poses a major challenge to the continent's
development. Its lack of capacity regarding research and knowledge
creation has meant further marginalization. Africa has the world's
lowest ratio of researchers per million inhabitants and an average
of only 35 scientists and engineers per one million inhabitants. Its
annual share of research publications is less than 1.5%. There is
need for increased commitment on the part of governments and the
private sector to invest in higher education, science and
technology, research and innovation. Various options need to be
explored for developing clear funding mechanisms and policies.
In most African countries, the increase in tertiary enrolment has
not translated into a comparable improvement in employment
opportunities. This is partly due to the mismatch between the number
and type of graduates and the needs of the labour market. Indeed,
there are growing complaints by employers that graduates are poorly
prepared for the workplace. Thus there is a triple crisis of
graduate unemployment, underemployment and unemployability. Several
studies point to a need to match up employer requirements and the
curriculum developed by higher education institutions.
A number of "centres of excellence" are being established in Africa,
notably the AU's Pan- African University (PAU), which promotes
cooperation among African countries in targeted areas within
specialised regional centres to enhance quality, research, and
postgraduate education. A concrete initiative that seeks to nurture
quality and exemplify excellence, the PAU is globally competitive
and relevant to Africa's need and aspirations. However, even with
initiatives like this, the scale of change is inadequate if the
African higher education sector is to compete with those in other
parts of the world. Many processes, moreover, have not been
subjected to continental dialogues involving the majority of
stakeholders in the sector. Finally, the lack of coordination among
interventions by African governments, private actors and networks,
and international development partners is causing fragmentation and
reducing impact.
There is therefore an urgent need for coordinated interventions of
key stakeholders involving African governments, regional economic
communities, the private sector, scholars, pan-African development
agencies, research and university networks, and international
development partners. Across the continent, and at several national
higher education policy fora, stakeholders have been demanding a
platform for an Africa-wide dialogue to reposition the higher
education sector to serve the needs of the continent and its people.
This context provides the impetus for the continental summit on the
theme of "Revitalizing Higher Education for Africa's Future," which
will be held on March 10--12, 2015 in Dakar, Senegal.
Summit Partners
The summit is being organized by several key pan-African
organizations: TrustAfrica, African Union Commission (AUC), Council
for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA),
United Nations Africa Institute for Development and Economic
Planning (IDEP), Association of African Universities (AAU), and the
African Development Bank (AfDB). The government of Senegal will
serve as the host of the summit. The National Research Foundation
(NRF) of South Africa has recently joined the summit consortium. The
summit is being held in partnership with international development
agencies and foundations that have been active in the field of
higher education in Africa, namely: the Carnegie Corporation of New
York (CCNY), MasterCard Foundation, and the World Bank.
Summit Goal and Objectives
The main aim of the summit is to create a continental multistakeholders'
platform to identify strategies for transforming the
African higher education sector. Objectives include to:
- Build a constituency for transformation and investment in Africa's
higher education;
- Create a shared vision for the future of African higher education;
- Harness and highlight exemplary efforts (best practice) and
initiatives in African higher education;
- Harness disparate efforts and interventions in African higher
education;
- Spur and sustain innovation in African higher education;
- Create an African higher education space/community as part of the
continent's integration efforts; and
- Ensure coordination and complementarities of the various
initiatives, both by African actors and international development
organizations, to reposition the sector.
Participants and Structure
We envisage 500 participants at the summit drawn from the following
stakeholders:
- Academics and administrators of higher education institutions
- Employers -- public and private
- Governments (this includes some Presidents, Prime Ministers,
Ministers of Education, Science and Technology, and Finance)
- Students associations -- such as the All Africa Students Union
(AASU)
- Academic and non-academic unions
- Donors -- foundations, bilateral and multilateral agencies
- Families and citizens
- Business leaders
The summit will be highly interactive, allowing exchange of
experiences and views among participants. It will consist of plenary
and parallel sessions over three consecutive days.
Expected Outcomes
The continental summit seeks to institutionalize continental
dialogue and build a movement of like-minded institutions and
individuals for the transformation of the African higher education
sector. Specifically, we expect to accomplish the following
outcomes:
- A coalition/movement of continental and international multistakeholders
is established to partner to host the summit and take
its recommendations forward;
- Outputs of the working groups -- research papers/ monographs,
policy papers, reports of workshops -- are disseminated and
available online as from September 2014;
- Outcomes of the summit influence national and regional policy to
transform higher education sector;
- Civil society organizations participating in higher education
policy processes at national and continental levels lead to better
policy and effective implementation;
- Gaps are bridged between governments, universities' administrators
and academic and non-academic unions on the continent;
- Gaps are bridged between African higher education institutions and
the private sector;
- Greater coordination of disparate initiatives to transform the
African higher education sector takes place;
- A shared vision about the future direction of higher education in
Africa is developed;
- A comprehensive inventory of previous and current interventions --
players, goals and core activities, plus immediate and wider impact
is provided;
- An agenda for the future of partnerships between Africans and
international development partners is agreed to;
- An agenda for African national and regional governments is agreed
to;
- A framework for increased investment in the higher education
sector is established;
- Commitments to research, science and technology are made;
- Principles guiding future actions to transform African higher
education are agreed to;
- New and improved relationships with key stakeholders that
facilitate change and future action, especially among governments,
administrators of higher education institutions, and academic and
non-academic unions are strengthened; and
- African higher education improves its position in the global
system.
Contact: Dr. Omano Edigheji, Director of the Summit, TrustAfrica
E-mail: omanoee@gmail.com or edigheji@trustafrica.org
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providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a
particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
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