The Challenges of African Universities
In my last post, I had discussed the effect that globalization was having on universities worldwide and noted the relatively little role African universities were playing in the phenomenon. I had hinted that perhaps this was because African universities were beset with more fundamental, internal problems that would need to be resolved before we could truly get a place on the world stage.
These problems, I know, are not news to the majority of people reading this post because they would have known these problems in the most intimate way possible, they would have lived through them. Still, it is important to discuss such problems in a systematic and rigorous manner. This being the data age, perhaps we should start by delving into statistics that show how African universities stack up against global averages.
The sub-Saharan African average gross enrolment ratio for tertiary education increased marginally between 2013 and 2018, from 8.9 to 9.4 per cent. Over the same period, world average increased from 33 to 38 per cent. Of the Arab states in North Africa, many have relatively high gross tertiary enrolment rates for both sexes, in the case of Algeria (51%) even well above world average. For Mauritius, the figure is 41% and Morocco 36%. Corresponding figures are 68% for Europe, 61.5% for North America, 51.8% for South America and 28.9% for Asia.
Gross domestic expenditures on research and development (R&D) in African countries range from 0.82 % (South Africa) to 0.01 % (Madagascar). The median for African countries is 0.30 %. World average is 2.22%. The result of this is that Africa only accounts for roughly 1.3% of global R&D. Furthermore, African research output is heavily skewed to a handful of countries on the continent, with just Egypt and South Africa accounting for roughly half of Africa’s scientific publications; an additional 25 percent is generated collectively by Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and Tanzania.
Public spending per student is at about $1,000 with some claiming that this figure is declining. This markedly contrasts with public spending per student in the developed world, which is the region of $9,000 to $18,000.
The number of researchers per million people in African countries ranges from 1,772 (Tunisia) to 11 (Burundi). The median for Africa is 91. For the world it is 799.
One in every nine people who are born in Africa and have a university degree is a migrant in one of the 34 member stated of the OECD — the world’s most developed countries. There reportedly are more Sierra Leonean doctors living in the Chicago area of the state of Illinois, USA than in Sierra Leone.
We have seen the data, but what do they mean exactly? What implications do they hold about what happens on the ground on a day to day basis? To that discussion, we turn to next. To kick that off, perhaps a recounting of the history of the evolution of the African university system might be in order.
In the 1940s, Africa had just a handful of universities, about 31 in 1944 (out of about 3,703 worldwide). The numbers rose to 170 in 1969, 446 in 1989, and about 1,279 officially recognized universities in 2023 according to the uniRank database (with roughly at least 25,000 globally). Another source put the figure at 1,639, as early as 2015 (out of 18,808 worldwide). Up until the 1960s, African university students were typically educated to the highest international standards, with a substantial number receiving part or all of their education at universities abroad. In the 1970s and early 80s, while it was still common then for students to undertake at least a part of their studies abroad, economic conditions in many African countries had become so harsh, that a substantial number of African students receiving the education in foreign institutions who could afford to stay abroad did so.
This was also a politically difficult period for African universities as the many authoritarian governments created a hostile environment in order to prevent the more radical elements within the university community, from questioning the legitimacy of their regimes. Thus began the “brain-drain” phenomenon. By the mid-1980s, access to opportunities for study abroad, especially in Europe, had so diminished that most had to undertake their entire education, from first degree to doctoral studies, at home. This occurred at a time when the range and quality of library holdings, as well as the quality of teaching and research at most African universities were in decline.
The IMF induced Structural Adjustment Programs (SAP) of the 80s and 90s, and studies done by its sister organization, the World Bank, also played a key role in creating an environment hostile to the growth of the African university system. SAP led to reduced government investment in critical social sectors like education and public health. In the 80s, The World Bank published a series of papers suggesting that investment in basic education yielded a greater return on investment when compared to investment in higher education. This led a lot of donor countries that had making funds available for the development of the African university system to withdraw their support. This was a major source of source of the decline of African universities in the 80s and early 90s. It should be noted that the World Bank study was not without detractors. A retraction was even made by the Bank in 2002.
Fortunately, as the 90s progressed, there was the beginning of a change in perception of African universities, which had led to their somewhat rapid proliferation in numbers both in terms of the number of schools and in their enrollment numbers, particularly those that are privately owned. Despite this, much of the problems that started in earlier decades that have essentially come to define the character of African universities remain. These problems run the gamut of inadequate funding, corruption, inadequate infrastructural facilities, shortage of qualified academic staff, strike actions, brain-drain, poor research (in terms of quantity, quality, research environment and often, in terms of relevance), poor remuneration, weak administration etc. Let’s delve more deeply.
Africa in the last few decades has had to cope with harsh economic conditions leading unsurprisingly to the severe underfunding of higher education. This of course was exacerbated by the significant withdrawal of international aid as a result of the aforementioned World Bank studies. Even in circumstances where such aid is made available, much of it is rerouted to donor countries to fund scholarships at donor universities. Only about a quarter of the funds released actually get to African universities, and when they do, the funds marked for research have their agenda set by international interests rather than local. Another issue with this research funding is that often enough the monies are not funneled through the universities’ institutional mechanisms for handling research on a university wide level but are going directly to individual researchers who managed to hustle some international grant. This pattern of funding does not support the building institutional capacity. It is also not likely to make much of a contribution to systematic theory building, which is required for fundamental breakthroughs.
In addition to the problems of funding research are problems with the nature of the research itself. The research output from African universities is very low and much of it of questionable quality. Further problems include relevance of the research carried out. As much of it is externally funded, topics researched may not be of direct relevance to national development. Even when it is, there is the added problem of such research not making an impact because it is disconnected from the policymaking circles in the country, compounding this is the fact that the research is written up in esoteric journals that policymakers have neither the time or the inclination to decipher. Still on the topic of research, much of modern research is carried out in multidisciplinary teams; too many African researchers still work in isolation.
It will be hardly surprising to know that much of the problems with African research stem from hostile environmental conditions. The key elements of a research infrastructure such as laboratories, equipment, libraries, effective systems of information storage, retrieval, and utilization; appropriate management systems; and policies that facilitate and support the research enterprise including incentives that recognize and reward high-calibre research are often missing and sometimes glaringly so. As a result of all of this, even though African universities are exclusively built on the research university model pioneered in Germany, that I mentioned in my last post, it would be a great stretch to call a lot of them research universities. They aren’t great halls of teaching either. This in part stems from the use of the lecture method, which to be fair is necessitated by the fact that African universities admit far more students than they can adequately cater for, which itself stems from the soaring demand for university education. Lecturing to large classes does not encourage independent and critical student thinking. At the post graduate level, African graduate study and post-doctoral training are considered weak by international standards.
Another dimension to problems faced by African universities stems from the quality of bureaucracies running the universities. Problems in this area include unsatisfactory recordkeeping, bureaucratic corruption, ineffective structures and systems of coordination, which all hamper the effective functioning of universities.
Yet another problem is the paucity of university-industry links in Africa, the reasons being that the small and mostly informal nature of African economies make such relationships difficult initiate and sustain; that the universities lack the institutional capacity to make such linkages meaningful, resulting in the confidence on the part of industry in the abilities of universities to deliver research findings that will be useful to industry; that the lack of policies that spell out the role of universities and their precise contribution to society, make it difficult for universities and industry to engage one another in meaningful collaboration; that even when such policies exist they aren’t usually enforced; that a cultural divide makes it difficult for universities and industry to see eye to eye; the ever present issue of a lack of funding, and often, the sheer lack of interest in relationships on both the part of universities and industry, among many other reasons.
We have looked at problems, now time for a brief look at solutions. A good number of the problems turn on the issue of lack of funding. That is an issue that won’t be solved overnight. Lack of funding ultimately stems from the low productivity of African economies. I have mentioned before that productivity is the key to wealth. How nations like the UK and the US have solved the productivity problem in centuries past and nations like Japan and China more recently is through the aggressive use of industrial policy. This takes the form of government selecting a few strategic industries that it wants to drive growth and then sending very strong signals to the private sector in form of import tariffs, production subsidies, tax holidays, clear regulatory and competition frameworks that keep uncertainty to the barest minimum etc., that strongly encourage investment in productivity raising sectors.
Doing so would begin reduce the size of the informal economy in Africa which is abnormally large. Estimates run between 50 and 70% of GDP compared to about roughly 7–10% for nation like the US, UK and China. Greater formalization of the economy will increase the tax base, making more money available for investment in the universities. In the light manufacturing industry, there many sectors like textiles and footwear that have started many a country on the path to wealth creating productivity that do not initially require the deep scientific expertise that is the forte of universities. Such sectors can serve as a springboard to further deep science industrial activity further down the line.
A cynic might ask wat is there to compel government to follow through. That is where you, me and everybody else come in. Formation of strong civil society groups is essential for social development. In successful societies, civil society forms an effective counter weight to government. That needs to happen in Africa as well.
In the short term, there should be some minimums that the university should be able to guarantee. A university is supposed to help students do at least the following:
· Think logically with words and numbers
· Write and talk clearly
· Respond aesthetically
· Establish a moral framework
· Embark on a journey of lifelong learning
These happen to be the essential constituents of critical thinking. We shall look at that in the next post.
BEFORE YOU GO: Please share this with as many people as possible. Also check out my book, Why Africa is not rich like America and Europe.
Bibliography
1. Okolo Michael Monday et al ‘Higher Education in Nigeria: Challenges and Suggestions’ Middle European Scientific Bulletin
2. Adu, Kajsa Hallberg ‘Resources, relevance and impact — key challenges for African Universities’ The Nordic Africa Institute NAI Policy Paper 2020
3. Sawyerr, Akilagba ‘African Universities and the Challenge of Research Capacity Development’ JHEA/RESA Vol. 2, №1, 2004, pp. 211–240
4. Zeleza, Paul Tiyambe ‘The Giant Challenge of Higher Education in Africa’ The Elephant
5. Wolhuter C.C et al ‘Higher Education in Africa: Survey and Assessment’
6. Sa, Creso M. ‘Perspective of Industry’s Engagement with African Universities’
7. Huber, Richard M. 1992 How Professors Play the Cat Guarding the Cream: Why We’re Paying More and Getting Less in Higher Education. Virginia: George Mason University Press
