From outputs to impacts: The changing role of higher learning institutions in Africa
became apparent to all in attendance that the responsibility of tertiary education institutions extends far beyond this one goal. Rather, Africa’s institutions of higher learning have a vital part to play in the achievement of all 17 goals.
It also became patently clear that if the continent’s higher learning institutions want to have any hope of delivering on this responsibility, massive transformation and a significant paradigm shift are nonnegotiable. That’s because, while the world in which tertiary education exists has evolved exponentially in recent decades, the same cannot be said for the institutions that are tasked with delivering higher education.
Over the years, academic freedom and autonomy have created a space in which institutions of higher learning could essentially plot their own course. Today, that freedom is increasingly being questioned by a society that is looking to higher education as one of the most important ways through which socioeconomic development and transformation can be enabled. As a result, the relevance of higher education as it currently stands is quite rightly under scrutiny.
This in no way implies that tertiary institutions have to give up their autonomy. However, it does mean that they can no longer hide behind “academic freedom” to avoid entering into meaningful partnerships and act as the agents of sustainable, positive change that they should be.
Most higher learning institutions across the world are still stuck in a previous era; one in which their primary responsibility was to churn out graduates with little regard for what these educated individuals actually went out and did with the qualifications they attained. Today, their role in society is vastly different. For one, their primary function is not to produce graduates and research papers, but rather to deliver a sustainable, positive impact on society, industry and the global economy. This means that for higher learning as a whole to remain truly relevant within African society, its institutions have to embrace their responsibility to be partners in the social and economic development of that society.
Achieving this requires a sincere desire to add such value. It also raises some difficult questions. In the first place, does tertiary education have an impact mission? In other words, is there a sincere desire to commit to moving from collaborating with society by producing graduates to partnering with society to deliver real and lasting impact?
Assuming the answer to that question is “yes”, the next question must be whether tertiary education in Africa has the leadership capacity and intellectual capital to drive such a strategic shift, and the infrastructure and credibility on which to build an impact-focused future?
None of these questions are easy to answer. But they urgently need to be. In fact, if tertiary education in Africa is to have any hope of retaining its relevance, leaders of higher education institutions need to come together to reinterpret the context in which their establishments exist, and then take steps to reposition their roles in society to ensure they don’t become little more than issuers of degrees.