Higher education and economic development African case studies

Botswana and University of Botswana	Ghana and University of Ghana	Kenya and University of Nairobi	Mauritius and the University of Mauritius
Mozambique and Eduardo Mondlane University	South Africa and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University	Tanzania and University of Dar es Salaam	Uganda and Makerere University

FINDINGS FROM THE 8 AFRICAN CASE STUDIES

The development model of the HE systems (Finland, South Korea and North Carolina) studied in this project could be classified as ‘innovation-driven’ – in other words, these countries have agreed that knowledge and education are key productive factors in development. Three from the sample of eight African countries (Mauritius, South Africa and Botswana) are in the efficiency phase, meaning that improved efficiency and higher education and training are increasingly playing an important role in economic development. The other countries (Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda) are in the process of moving from ‘factor’ (natural resources and low skills base) towards efficiency and, by implication, an increasing importance for education and training.

This study shows that the three efficiency-driven systems already have substantially higher participation rates in higher education but that, with the exception of Mauritius, none of the other countries has a consistent development model, nor is there an agreement (pact) that knowledge is a key productive factor. In the rest of the sample there are emerging knowledge policies, but they are mainly in one government department, with weak coordination and implementation. 

The absence of a pact means that there are different and competing approaches to what should drive development and a lack of agreement about the role of higher education in development. It seems that the widespread belief in Africa that education in general, and higher education specifically, is a private good, and not a productive factor, is still dominant.

The results presented in this study show that the main strengths of the universities are in undergraduate education, but they are very weak in knowledge production, producing students with doctorates and publishing internationally. 

The universities in our sample are still predominantly organised as teaching institutions, despite some rather grandiose mission statements and claims to be knowledge producers. The challenge facing African universities are to expand their role beyond teaching to research and to become significant contributors to the knowledge society.

RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE 8 AFRICAN CASE STUDIES

The results of this is study shows that from some national policies, to university leadership discourses and strategic plans, to a number of ‘world class’ development projects, there is an increasing intention, and some exemplary practices to joining the knowledge society. To encourage and support these initiatives, both at national and institutional levels, this project argues, amongst others, the following: 

Firstly, there needs to be considerably more agreement between governments, funders and university leaders that knowledge and higher education are key productive forces. This means that while capacity-building is important, consensus-building is equally important – capacity-building without agreement on ‘capacity for what’ may be part of the ‘bottomless pit’ syndrome in Africa. 

Secondly, the strengthening of knowledge is essential. Development in higher education in Africa is not an esoteric search for indigenous knowledge, but the strengthening of postgraduate training and research at universities as specialised institutions whose core business is knowledge. 

Thirdly, it is clear from this investigation that in order to ‘refocus’ universities, attention will have to be paid to incentive structures. Top priority is to address the serious shortage of national, continental and global research funds which incentivises academics to do research, rather than mainly consultancy and ‘triple teaching’. What needs to be incentivised is PhD supervision and research programmes that strengthen the academic core and make these flagship universities part of the global academic community, and connects them to local/regional development.

Fourthly, all the universities in the sample have exemplary development activities/projects that both connect to national and or local development needs while also strengthening the academic core. The problem is that are simply too few of them and these projects are mostly driven by exceptional individuals. The challenge will be to institutionalise these activities and to expand the scale and the sustainability. 

Finally, to develop differentiated support policies for governments, funders and institutional leaders, research on higher education, and reliable and systematic higher education information systems are key to providing data that strengthens evidence-based decision-making, and weakens the prevailing over-reliance on ‘higher education commonsense’.