This publication is the result of a two year process during which university leaders,  from eight African universities, developed strategic plans for their institutes to counter the impacts of globalization and to benefit from the opportunities it presents. The process was facilitated by the Maastricht University Centre for International Cooperation in Academic Development (MUNDO) and was made possible through the financial assistance of the  EDULINK programme.

In today’s globalising world Universities face unprecedented changes in the means of generating, delivering, accessing and disseminating knowledge and information are having far-reaching impacts, direct and indirect, on higher education systems worldwide. For universities in sub-Saharan Africa, where management and administrative capacities are already limited, responding to these changes in the global knowledge system is particularly difficult. The challenge for them is to develop institutional strategies that take into account the ongoing globalization of knowledge, assess existing ways of working and chart a new course for the future. For most African universities this is by no means a simple exercise.
 
The authors of this publication have been engaged in the complex but exciting task of facilitating and assisting African universities to develop strategic plans not only to counter the impacts of globalization, but also benefit from the opportunities it presents. The project invited university leaders, including vice-presidents, rectors and their advisors, from eight African countries – all members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of states – to assess the challenges, risks, potentials and opportunities facing African higher education institutions as they negotiate the powerful forces of globalization.

The African participants represented  the University of Kisangani (Democratic Republic of Congo), the University of Cape Coast (Ghana), Moi University (Kenya), the University of Malawi, the University of Mauritius, the Catholic University of Mozambique, the University of Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania) and Makerere University (Uganda). 

The strategy papers developed by the leaders of the eight universities take into account their countries’ diverse economic, historical, educational, social and political dimensions both to develop and to strengthen the capabilities needed to create and disseminate knowledge, and thus to increase their competitiveness in the global knowledge marketplace. 

We trust that this book will also be useful to other universities engaged in the process of
deciding on their own strategy papers.  

         Contents

• Introduction: Globalization and African higher education (Damtew Teferra and Heinz Greijn)
   
• Globalization, knowledge and learning: Developing the capacities of higher education institutes (Han Aarts and Heinz Greijn)
   
• Africa and the global knowledge domain (Olusola Oyewole)
   
• Graduate education in sub-Saharan Africa (Fred Hayward)
   
• Regional and international academic and research cooperation in Africa (Juma Shabani)
   
• Information and communication technologies in tertiary education in sub-Saharan Africa (Anna Bon)
   
• Expanding the frontiers of access: Distance and ‘privatized’ higher education (Nephas Mufutumari)
   
• Deploying Africa’s intellectual diaspora: Potentials, challenges and strategies (Damtew Teferra)
   
• Annex: Evaluation of the project (Daniel J. Ncayiyana)

Download the publication: English   French

Article prepared by Heinz Greijn