African university presses – Ripe for innovation and new technologies

By Sharon Dell – Africa Editor. As part of our Special Report on African scholarly publishing, Thierry Luescher and François van Schalkwyk argue that African university presses have an important mission and a unique contribution to make to the African knowledge base and would benefit from a greater will to innovate, relearn and adopt new technologies, while Karen MacGregor reports on the launch in Johannesburg by a small group of African scholarly publishers of a network for collaboration, experience-sharing and advocacy.
   This special report kicks off a new section on African Scholarly Publishing that will carry regular articles on developments in the academic book and journal publishing sector on the continent.
   In Africa Analysis, Zachariah Mushawatu highlights the potential threats to academic freedom and student activism in Zimbabwe posed by a proposed new bill on cyber security, while Damtew Teferra contends that the best way to elevate universities in Africa to world-class, research-oriented institutions would be to strategically consolidate the existing flagship universities.
   In Africa Features, Gilbert Nakweya writes about growing recognition of the need to integrate STEM and humanities subjects at university level in order to produce graduates capable of dealing with the world’s multi-dimensional challenges.
   In News from around the continent, Kudzai Mashininga reports that the Constitutional Court in Zimbabwe has paved the way for the prosecution of the higher education minister on charges relating to the misuse of funds intended for students, while Rodrigue Rwirahira reports on concerns over further restructuring of the University of Rwanda, already the product of a multi-institutional merger. More...