Universities and Economic Development in Africa : : Pact, academic core and coordination / / Nico Cloete, Tracy Bailey, Peter Maassen.

• VerfasserIn: Cloete, Nico,; Bailey, Tracy,; Maassen, Peter,
• TeilnehmendeR: Bailey, Tracy,; Maassen, Peter,
• Place / Publishing House: Cape Town, South Africa : : African Minds,, 2012.
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (110 pages)

Universities and economic development in Africa presents the synthesis and includes the key findings of case studies of eight African countries and universities. The analysis and discussion presented in the book draw three main conclusions. First, there was a lack of clarity and agreement (pact) about a development model and the role of higher education in economic development, at both national and university levels, in all eight cases. There was, however, an increasing awareness, particularly at government level, of the importance of universities in the global context of the knowledge economy. Second, research production at the eight African universities was not strong enough to enable them to build on their traditional undergraduate teaching roles and make a sustained contribution to development via new knowledge production. A number of the universities had manageable student-staff ratios and adequately qualified staff, but inadequate funds for staff to engage in research. In addition, the incentive regimes did not support knowledge production. Third, in none of the countries in the sample was there a coordinated effort between government, external stakeholders and the university to systematically strengthen the contribution that the university can make to development. While at each of the universities there were exemplary development projects that connected strongly to external stakeholders and strengthened the academic core, the challenge remains how to increase the number of these projects. The study on which this book is based forms part of a larger study on higher education and economic development in Africa, undertaken by the Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network in Africa (HERANA). HERANA is coordinated by the Centre for Higher Education Transformation (CHET) in South Africa.

Table of Contents

Cover -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Contents -- Tables, figures and boxes -- About this report -- A note about the data timeframe -- Acknowledgements -- The project group -- Acronyms and abbreviations -- Executive summary -- Chapter 1 -- Introduction -- 1.1 Contextualising the project: The relationship between higher education and development -- 1.1.1 International trends -- 1.1.2 The African context -- 1.1.3 The focus of prior research -- 1.2 Project focus and methodology -- 1.3 Analytical starting points for the study -- 1.3.1 What the project is not doing Chapter 2 -- Universities and economic development: Evidence of a pact?2.1 The role of knowledge and universities in development -- 2.1.1 A role for knowledge and universities in national and institutional policies and plans -- 2.1.2 Notions about the role of knowledge and universities -- Chapter 3 -- The academic core of eight African universities -- 3.1 Methodology -- 3.2 The academic core data -- 3.3 The strength of and changes in the academic cores -- 3.4 Disjunctures between capacity and productivity -- Chapter 4 -- Coordination and connectedness -- 4.1 Coordination and implementation of knowledge policies 4.1.1 National coordination4.1.2 Implementation -- 4.2 University connectedness to external stakeholders -- 4.2.1 Industry and community -- 4.2.2 Foreign donors -- 4.3 The connectedness of development activities to the academic core -- 4.3.1 Methodology -- 4.3.2 The project data and analysis -- 4.3.3 Discussion -- Chapter 5 -- Conclusions and some implications -- 5.1 Pact needed on 'engine for development' role for universities -- 5.2 Strengthening the academic core -- incentives are key -- 5.3 Coordination and connectedness to development -- List of sources Appendix A.A higher education and development profile of the countriesAppendix B. List of interviewees -- Appendix C. Indicators of pact, coordination and implementation -- Appendix D. Problems in collecting academic core data -- Appendix E. Academic core indicators and ratings -- Back cover.