Regional

A Commitment to Research and Facilities Required if Continent is to Meet its Vast Potential

Poor research output and facilities must be met head on if the African continent is to meet its potential, according to a recent report by Evidence, a UK-based subsidiary of Thomson Reuters, detailing a wide array of problems that continue to prevent academic progress on the continent. Currently, Africa’s total research output is equal in volume to that of the Netherlands, the report states.

The Global Research Report on Africa shows that the combined research output of the continent’s 44 countries is about 27,000 papers a year, which the report describes as “much smaller than is desirable if the potential contribution of Africa’s researchers is to be realized for the benefit of its populations.”

Jonathan Adams, director of research evaluation at Thomson Reuters, told Times Higher Education: “The continent has massive resources and potential, and there are all sorts of global commitments to support its development and education,” adding that it is “under-realizing” its potential.

The report cites wealthier African countries for failing to invest in their research base, singling out Nigeria, which it says has a “disappointing” level of research investment relative to its comparatively high gross domestic product. Nigeria is one of the fastest-growing exporters of students to universities in the UK, with the British Council predicting that the number it sends will increase fivefold to about 30,000 by 2015.

Despite huge growth in the country’s academy, with the number of universities growing from just one in 1960 to more than 90 today, plus 100 polytechnics and 150 technical colleges, Oye Ibidapo-Obe, president of the Nigerian Academy of Science and former vice-chancellor of the University of Lagos, agreed with the conclusions of the Evidence report.

“Hitherto, the federal government has not considered the critical importance of research and development as a necessary condition for national development. The budget for science and technology is dismal,” he said. “There is an urgent need for a change in attitude, to recognize that research is the basis for innovation and development.”

The report names South Africa as the continent’s “outstanding research leader,” with “by far” the greatest research output of any African country, much of it with a high impact. It is followed by Egypt and Nigeria in volume terms. Together, the three countries dominate Africa’s research production, and, along with Kenya in the east, which punches well above its economic weight, could have a “transformational role” in facilitating further growth across the continent, the report says. They need to provide leadership as well as strong local investment and facilities to draw in and assist poorer partners, Evidence suggests. It also identifies pockets of research excellence elsewhere in the continent, most notably in Malawi, which has a small GDP but is “very productive” for its size, producing work of high impact that exceeds the world average.

The most significant areas of research across the continent relate to natural resources, agriculture and health. The report stresses that the brain drain from Africa – many of its best students take their higher degrees overseas and too few return – must be stopped if the continent is to improve its performance. This will require strong action to tackle the “chronic lack of investment” in research facilities, it says.

– Times Higher Education
April 22, 2010

Continent Needs to Return to the Basics in Higher Ed

A Nigerian government official has bemoaned Africa’s failure to establish world-class universities. Oladapo Afolabi, permanent secretary in the Federal Ministry of Education, said the entire continent needed to get back to basics. He made the remarks in Abuja at a regional capacity-building workshop on issues such as institutional quality and assurance systems for Africa’s Anglophone and Lusophone countries.

Mr Afolabi said of African universities: “When you put the finished products, the graduates, to the test, you discover that their output is very discouraging. I look forward to a situation where some institutions can run effectively with the goal of attaining global standards. Let’s go back to the basics, let’s consolidate.”

– Daily Independent
April 19, 2010

Monitoring Quality on the Continent

The African Union (AU) has launched an initiative designed to monitor quality at the continent’s universities. Vice-chancellors in AU member states have been asked to respond to a questionnaire circulated by its Commission on Teaching and Research. The survey, Developing a Quality Rating Mechanism for African Higher Education, asks institutions to assess their own quality levels, The East African newspaper reported. Speaking in Nairobi at the first round-table meeting of East African education ministers, AU representative Beatrice Njenga said that the continent’s universities had no choice but to ensure that the caliber of graduates they produced met modern demands.

– East Africa Standard
April 26, 2010

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Two-month Lecturer Strike Ends

Lecturers at the University of Kinshasa returned to work April 10 after a strike lasting 53 days, following an agreement between the government and Apukin, the union representing the university’s teaching staff.

The government blamed the global recession, and a resulting reduction in the national tax base, for its inability to meet lecturer pay demands. Reportedly, confrontations with the police had induced the government to address lecturers’ grievances.

– Le Potential
April 15, 2010

Namibia

Teachers Colleges Merge with University

Four of Namibia’s teacher training colleges – Windhoek, Ongwediva, Caprivi and Rundu colleges of education – merged with the University of Namibia (UNAM) in April in a bid to improve educational standards.

With the merger, UNAM’s enrollment rises to more than 14,000 students, while giving the institution a greater say in the state of teacher education in Namibia. Prior to the mergers, the university was confined to senior secondary school teachers. Now it has an opportunity to make an impact on the whole education sector. But it is trainee teachers who stand to benefit the most from the mergers because they will obtain more prestigious university qualifications and will graduate with a bachelor of education degree.

It has been reported that plans are in place to help teachers who hold basic education teacher diplomas to upgrade their qualifications.

– New Era
March 30, 2010

Mali

Foundation Stone Laid for Nation’s Second Public University

Prime Minister Modibo Sidibé, in March, laid the first stone in the Segou district of the country for Mali’s first regional university and second university. The University of Bamako is the small West African nation’s only other university. The new regional university will offer programs geared toward sustainable development in agriculture and industry.

– Ministry of Education
March 29, 2010

Senegal

Work on New Public-Private University Launched

Minister for Technical Education and Professional Training Moussa Sakho has launched a project to create a new university in the Saint-Louis region. The Université des Métiers et du Développement Durable (University of Professions and Sustainable Development), due to open in 2012, is a joint public-private venture.

The university will offer professionally oriented courses in such sectors as health, catering, tourism, telecommunications and construction, reported Le Soleil of Dakar. It will focus on sustainable development through teaching modules such as water treatment, renewable energies, waste and sanitation.

Funded jointly by the French government and the French Fondation Concorde, the university will have places for 1,000 students. Senegal currently has two public universities – the University Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, and the University Gaston Berger in Saint-Louis – and six private universities.

– Le Soleil
April 16, 2010

Zimbabwe

Regional Help to Rebuild Ailing University Sector

Universities in Southern Africa have rallied to support the rebuilding of higher education in Zimbabwe, in what could evolve into a model of regional collaboration. Following a meeting of vice-chancellors in Cape Town, convened by the Southern African Regional Universities Association, a special envoy to Zimbabwe will be appointed to identify priority needs and develop an action plan to assist a sector devastated by a decade of political turmoil.

The meeting, called the SARUA Leadership Dialogue on Rebuilding Higher Education in Zimbabwe, led to a “Cape Town Accord and Call for Action” that was finalized in May.

Vice-chancellors from across Southern Africa committed to actions ranging from encouraging academics to visit or return to Zimbabwe to ease critical staff shortages, helping to train postgraduates to connect universities to the fast broadband services now available in South Africa, and using ICTs for joint teaching programs.

Zimbabwean university leaders at the meeting identified four areas of priority needs: A critical need for qualified academic and teaching staff; an increase in research funding to expand knowledge production. Mentoring through collaborative research was required to develop the skills of young researchers; significant expansion of teaching, laboratory, administrative and research infrastructure was required to accommodate growth in student numbers; improvements in institutional governance and management, which had been eroded by lack of funds and personnel.

The Accord called on governments, donors and universities to actively support student and staff mobility, exchange and collaboration in higher education in Southern Africa. Mutual reciprocity was fundamental to making cooperation work and should be a core criterion guiding collaborative projects, it said.

– University World News
May 9, 2010