Chronicle of Higher Education: African Higher Education in the World - Are They (and We) Ready?

by Francisco Marmolejo

Africa is a fascinating and puzzling part of the world... Outfitted with my admittedly limited knowledge of the region, but also an awareness of my shortcomings and a determination to learn, I traveled last week to Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso...

This opportunity was created by an invitation to speak at a regional workshop entitled “Sustainable Financing and Governance of Higher Education Regional Initiatives in Africa.” This workshop brought together key representatives of sub-Saharan African universities, ministries of education, NGOs involved in education, and business sector representatives, as well as representatives of international donor agencies, multilateral organizations and foundations....

Despite many disparities in the region, a consensus—at least among attendees of this seminar—has emerged in recognizing that, in today’s world, a new approach in both talking about and in addressing the necessary modernization of higher education in Africa is required. This represents an important change in approach if we consider that, as expressed by Jamil Salmi, “in the past even the World Bank considered that Africa didn’t need a sophisticated higher education system.” “Not anymore”, he concluded...

In matters related to preparing advanced human capital, desperately needed in the region, programs such as the Regional Initiative in Science and Education (RISE) have finally come up with ways to reduce the risk of brain drain. Keeping in mind that only 30 percent of Africans studying abroad return to the region after graduation, it becomes more effective to develop programs aimed at incentivizing more preparation “at home” as RISE is doing...

Full article here.