UNIVERSITY OF VERACRUZ - 2007 AUTUMN SYMPOSIUM

“ The University in the 21st Century: a University for Sustainable Development”
Xalapa , Veracruz , Mexico , 15-17 November 2007

“Universities as Development Levers: Constraints & Challenges - Focus Africa ”

By

Goolam Mohamedbhai
President, International Association of Universities

ABSTRACT

It is widely acknowledged that global sustainable development is only possible if all regions of the world achieve a reasonable level of development. There is, however, a huge disparity in level of development between different regions of the world, Sub-Saharan Africa being the most under-developed region.

It is now recognised that higher education is essential for promoting economic growth and reducing poverty, especially in developing regions such as Africa . The paper therefore looks at the situation of higher education in Africa, and the various challenges and constraints they face, focussing on the following areas: access and equity; financing; quality; relevance; research; governance, autonomy and accountability; privatization and globalization; and brain drain.

Sub-Saharan Africa has an enrolment ratio in higher education of only 5%, the lowest in the world, although the enrolment, in numbers, trebled over the past decades. Higher education institutions in Africa are short of funds to expand and improve the poor quality of their infrastructure and academic activities. Their programmes are not always relevant to the needs of society and their research output is low. They cannot always function autonomously and their governance leaves much to be desired. They have, in addition, to compete with increasing private institutions and cross-border delivery of higher education and to cope with diminishing faculty as a result of brain drain.. ICT can resolve many of their problems but the sector faces many constraints, the ICT infrastructure in Africa being particularly poor.

The last part of the paper looks at international efforts to revitalize higher education in Africa , and emphasises that recent initiatives, which started around 2005, can greatly assist African higher education institutions to meet some of the daunting challenges they face.