12 universities to undergo financial probe
East African heads of state announce formation of common HE area
Among a range of other news items from around the continent, Tonderayi Mukeredzi highlights the way in which cash-strapped Zimbabwean students are looking to student political movements for longer-term solutions to the country’s economic crisis; while Wagdy Sawahel reports on India’s deepening higher education cooperation with Egypt.
In Africa Features, Stephen Coan writes about the threat to academic credibility posed by predatory journals, emphasising research on the extent of the problem in South Africa and possible solutions; while Tunde Fatunde reports on the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon, where protest action in the Anglophone provinces by students, academics, teachers and lawyers, who are objecting to being marginalised by the Francophone-dominated government, is taking its toll; and Munyaradzi Makoni reports on a recent webinar series on technical education hosted by the Association for the Development of Education in Africa Working Group on Higher Education and the Association of African Universities.
In Africa Analysis, we have two contributions from South Sudan – one from Kuyok Abol Kuyok and the other from John A Akec – both of which point to the enormous strain on the higher education system, with negative implications for the young country’s future development.
In a Special Report covering an international conference held in South Africa on the contribution of business schools and higher education to inclusive development, Munyaradzi Makoni reports on a speaker’s call for the link globally between higher education access and social advantage to be broken by developing admissions criteria that identify potential. Makoni and Sharon Dell report on a South African vice-chancellor’s call for the need to address the “massive socio-cultural, inter-generational chasm” which exists between students and university administrators; while Makoni also reports on a presentation by students from the School of Oriental and African Studies, UK, which outlines their stance on decolonisation. More...
Institutional Massification in African Universities
By Goolam Mohamedbhai. Over the two decades 1986-2006, student enrollment increased by about four- to eight-fold at a limited number of universities resulting in "institutional massification," not national or regional massification. More...
Building ‘Harvard of Africa’
By John Elmes for Times Higher Education. Founder discusses his plans for a transcontinental university.
“This century will be the African century, so students who want to be globally equipped will have to understand where Africa’s going.” More...
Changing the Game for Women in East Africa
Spotlight On Adea 2017 Triennial and Its Key Takeaways On Education and Training in Africa
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Spotlight On Adea 2017 Triennial and Its Key Takeaways On Education and Training in Africa
Stefano De Cupis, African Development Bank, AllAfrica, 2017/05/12
This article reads a lot like an overly-wordy press release than it does an article, but I wanted to include it because of the background on work going on and organizations involved in Africa. In particular we have the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), whose annual conference is highlighted here (here's their blog (RSS is broken though)). More...