The future of African higher education

SHORT SIGHTED politicians are creating higher education systems which fail to meet national development needs in Africa, according to one of the continent’s leading higher education experts.

Instead of trying to establish more and more universities, particularly research-intensive ones, they should focus on producing the right mix of institutions so that they can meet domestic employment and community needs.

In the absence of a properly diversi ed system, individual universities are placed in an impossible position as they try to be all things to all people, argues Goolam Mohamedbhai, a former secretary-general of the Association of African Universities and former vice- chancellor of the University of Mauritius.

“No single university can do the work of being relevant to the country alone,” says Mohamedbhai. “It has to form part of an ecosystem of higher education institutions.

“Individually, many universities are relevant, and they are