5

This chapter gives a brief contextualization of African

higher education, including the major challenges faced
and key implications for institutional research.

Listen to the Urgent Sound of Drums:

Major Challenges in African Higher
Education
Herman Visser
African higher education is currently facing tremendous challenges. The
pressure and demand for access is huge. This is understandable against
the background of traditionally low participation, low success and throughput rates, declining financial contributions from governments and donors,
and critical pressures for efficiency, modernization, development, and
growth. Growth demands are mainly fueled by the requirements of the
knowledge era, globalization, and imperatives for the development of Africa.
Generalizations about a continent as vast and varied as Africa is difficult because of the large diversity evident among countries and regions.
Higher education trends in northern Africa are considerably different from
those in sub-Saharan Africa, and in the latter cluster countries such as
Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa dont fit the rest of the cluster well.
Although an attempt is made in this chapter to indicate general trends for
the whole continent, the focus is mainly on sub-Saharan Africa and, in some
cases just South Africa. The aim is to identify the major trends rather than
offer a complete list of all the issues facing African higher education institutions. The current difficult circumstances under which universities operate, legacy issues, and social, economic, and political problems mean that
the road ahead will not be easy.

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Historical Perspective and Context of African Higher

Education
Bassey (1999) presents a very useful background on traditional higher
education. In traditional African education, education is inevitably linked
to community culture and cultural communities. Traditions are the sum
of the beliefs, opinions, customs, cultural patterns, and other ways of life
that are passed on by society from generation to generation through education. Skills, knowledge, and attitudes were acquired and transmitted
through nonformal institutions that included the entire community. The
emphasis was on social responsibility, job orientation, political participation, and spiritual and moral values. Traditional African education meant
gaining practical experience or learning by doing, and education connected the individual to the group and the social environment in a symbiotic relationship.
Teferra and Altbach (2004) point out that the oldest university still
existing in the world is Egypts Al-Azhar and that higher education in Africa
is as old as the Egyptian pyramids, the obelisks of Ethiopia, and the Kingdom of Timbuktu. They also point out that, although Al-Azhar is currently
the only major academic institution in the world organized on its original
Islamic model, other traditional centers of higher learning in Africa have
disappeared or were destroyed by colonialism. Sawyerr (2004) also refers to
historical African higher education with the example of Karawyyin in Fez,
which was also established in the first century A.D. like Al-Azhar, and Timbuktu, which was established in the thirteenth century.
Colonial Education in Africa. Missionaries played an important role
in the development of formal education in Africa, although their contributions were limited thanks to rivalry between missions and a general disrespect for African culture. Bassey (1999) indicates that, insofar as mission
patterns of advance gave certain ethnic groups an educational head start
over others, the missionaries unintentionally contributed to ethnic rivalries
in Africa.
European colonizers included Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy,
The Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. In general, colonial education in
Africa created a small educated elite, mainly to fill lower-ranked government
positions because the focus was on creating laborers. Education was deliberately in the language of the colony. European schools reinforced European
cultural heritage; indigenous language, history, and culture were not part of
colonial education in Africa. Vocational and industrial skills were also often
not taught. Britain and France left the most important legacies in African
higher education. Sawyerr (2004) points out that, excluding North Africa
with its different history and South Africa with its special circumstances, by
1960 only eighteen of the forty-eight countries of sub-Saharan Africa had
universities or colleges. With a few exceptions, higher education in Africa
is therefore a fairly recent development.
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Bassey (1999) highlights some common elements that are a result of the
colonial legacy: limited access and creation of educational elites, the language
of instruction being the language of the colonial power, limited academic
freedom and autonomy, and limited curricula that rarely included science.
In addition, in many parts of Africa education of females is severely limited.
Postcolonial Education in Africa. Because most African nations
gained their independence around this time, the period from the 1960s
onward is generally regarded as the era of postcolonial education in Africa.
Sawyerr (2004) observes that with political independence many African
countries regarded establishment of local universities as a major part of
postcolonial national development. The new universities were to help the
new independent nations build their capacity to develop and manage their
resources, alleviate poverty for the majority of their people, and close the
gap between them and the developed world. The entire cost of establishing
the institutions, including buildings, equipment, and other facilities, was
usually financed by the government. The operating cost was generally also
carried by the state, with students not contributing tuition fees, or paying
only a token amount. In many African countries, students even received a
stipend from the state for years. The two main reasons for this were (1) few
students could afford university studies, and (2) it reflected the explicit
public purposes for which universities were established. This situation
continued well into the 1980s, when nontuition subsidies were gradually
withdrawn and replaced by subsidized student loans, scholarships, and bursaries. These changes were much slower in the Francophone countries,
where attempts to reduce or remove the subsidies met with severe resistance from politically active student organizations.
Sawyerr (2004) writes that the reasons for these changes were a relative
decline in the price of primary products in the 1980s and 1990s, mishandling
of exchange rates and external reserves, and massive external debt, which all
combined to create huge resource gaps for African countries that put serious
pressure on the availability of resources for essential economic and social
investment. This resulted in increased dependence of the typical sub-Saharan
African country on aid from developed countries, which was not enough to
offset the resource shortfalls. The collapse of many national economies in
Africa under these forces and the accompanying destabilization of social structures resulted in prolonged crises for many organizations, including higher
education institutions. This was compounded by direction of resources toward
basic education under pressure from the World Bank and other donors.
Additional pressure from the growth in enrollments resulted in a situation where in many universities physical facilities cannot cope with the
number of students. Libraries are overcrowded, books are outdated, journal
holdings lag years behind, laboratories and equipment are outdated and
inadequate, rooms in hostels (where some students live) are overcrowded,
and academic staff are not compensated appropriately. At the same time that
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this crisis in university funding evolved, the government established technical colleges to provide vocational training, and there was a growth in private education.
Private institutions, both for-profit and nonprofit, are generally a recent
development; their scope is limited in Africa. Nonprofit private universities
are mostly sponsored by Christian and Islamic religious institutions. The
majority of the enrollments are, however, still in the public universities.
One major reason for this is the issue of affordability, which is discussed further under major challenges below.
Teferra and Altbach (2004) estimate the number of postsecondary students in Africa at between four and five million. Universities are generally
based in cities, where electricity and other infrastructure is relatively good compared with rural areas. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2007a) reports
that 69 percent of adults of tertiary age are enrolled in tertiary education programs in North America and Europe, but only 5 percent in sub-Saharan Africa.
Many African students are studying at universities outside the African
continent. According to UNESCO, students from sub-Saharan Africa are the
most mobile group in the world, with one out of every 16 studying abroad,
compared to one out of every 250 North American students on the other
end of the scale. Traditionally, many African students continued their postgraduate studies in universities of the former colonial countries. However,
huge increases in fees charged for foreign students in the UK and other
European countries significantly reduced the number of Africans who could
afford to study in those countries. Although the former colonial countries
and the United States used to be the major destinations, there are indications that the situation is changing, with many students studying in China.
According to Zachary (2007), more than two thousand African students are
currently studying in China, mostly in engineering and science, and the figure is expected to double within the next two years. One reason for the
increase in African students studying in Asia is that India and China are furnishing technological solutions to many African countries from their own
experience of similar conditions, rather than the first-world solutions that
often fail to work in developing countries.
Some distance education universities from other countries are also planning to target the African continent. It is evident from a UNESCO report
(2007b) that the outbound mobility in five African countries exceeds 40 percent, with Botswana at 88 percent, Lesotho 52 percent, Namibia 51 percent,
Swaziland 50 percent, and Mauritius 41 percent. It should be noted that these
countries are all in Southern Africa and have little or no higher education
capacity. It is further important to note from Table 14 of the Institute for Statistics report (2007b) that seven African countries had in excess of 10,000 students studying abroad in 2005. These were Morocco with 47,606 students,
Nigeria (18,210), Zimbabwe (15,674), Cameroon (15,500), Tunisia (15,463),
Kenya (13,092), and Senegal (11,184). These figures may, in another context,
not seem very high, but given the low participation rate in higher education
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in African countries, they are significant. Further, eight countries had more
than 5,000 students studying abroad. These were Botswana (9,242), Ghana
(8,327), Mauritius (7,330), Angola and Egypt with 6,949 each, South Africa
(6,388), Namibia (6,369), and Cte dIvoire (5,891). Some of these countries
also have a high outbound mobility rate because they have little or no higher
education capacity. In other cases, such as Egypt, South Africa, and Kenya, it
is part of the nature of global higher education.
According to Sawyerr (2004), the curriculum and pedagogy remained
mostly based on their colonial metropolitan models, but they were progressively transformed over the years by the infusion of locally relevant perspectives and material. Sawyerr is of the opinion that, contrary to widely held
views, by the end of the second decade of independence the content of the programs taught at African universities already showed a marked departure from
the original models, while the level of quality generally remained high. However, because of the widespread legacy of colonialism, Western knowledge systems have the appearance of universal truth and rationality. This has led to
pressure to develop indigenous knowledge systems, especially in South Africa,
where the National Research Foundation (NRF) created indigenous knowledge systems as one of the focus areas for research. It can therefore be expected
that some traditional Western paradigms will be further challenged over time,
as these studies mature. An enhanced understanding of cultural, racial, and
national differences can lead to rigorous academic debate that challenges some
current beliefs. The idea is that indigenous knowledge systems could lead to
an extension of knowledge and a richer understanding of our world.
Some African countries increased access to higher education and the
gross participation rate, but in general access and the gross participation rate
remain low with few exceptions. Access to higher education is frequently
not representative of all layers of the population; by and large, female students are still in the minority.

Major Challenges for African Higher Education

There are a number of important challenges facing higher education in
Africa. These include the demand for access and social equity, funding and
the cost to students of higher education, governance and internal management, the changing roles of academics, demographic changes among academics, inefficiency, and diversity and equality.
Demand for Access and Social Equity. Until the middle of the twentieth century, only a small fraction of the eligible population throughout the
world attended university. Because of colonial policies, this situation was
even worse in Africa. During the 1960s, however, the demand for higher
education increased, especially in industrialized countries. According to
Teferra and Altbach (2004), Africa, a continent composed of fifty-four countries, has no more than three hundred universities and is the least developed
region in terms of higher education institutions and enrollments. It is
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evident from Table 14 of UNESCOs Institute for Statistics report (2007b)

that Africa is lagging far behind the rest of the world in terms of participation in higher education. This issue clearly requires urgent attention. In
almost every country on the continent, the demand for higher education is
growing. It is expected that over the next decade, a minimum of sixteen
sub-Saharan countries will need to double their enrollment just to maintain
the current proportion of their population that participate in higher education. This does not take into account the expected massive attrition as a
result of HIV/AIDS. It should also be carefully noted that this does not
include an expansion of the participation rate that will be necessary to facilitate the required development of the African continent, especially initiatives such as the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD).
According to Adesola (1991), the Nigerian university system is doubling
every four to five years. Sawyerr (2004) points out that enrollment in subSaharan Africa almost quadrupled between 1975 and 1985 and tripled again
in the following decade. This indicates the type of growth that may be
required. The pressure for growth will put severe strains on higher education
resources. In many countries, resources have actually declined, for a number
of reasons: inflation, devaluation of the exchange rate, and economic and
political turmoil (such as war). This decline in resources had already put
severe pressure on African universities, as government contributions could
not be sustained at levels that would offer a quality learning environment, support research, and continue with the practice of furnishing boarding and lodging for students, and had led to significant reforms of African universities.
Public expenditure on higher education in Africa is already relatively high.
Teferra and Altbach (2004) estimate the current higher education
enrollment in Africa as between 4 and 5 million students. Egypt, with 1.5
million students, has the largest enrollment, followed by Nigeria with
approximately 900,000, and South Africa with more than half a million students. From the Institute of Statistics report (2007b) Table 14, it is evident
that the gross enrollment ratio, or participation ratio, in 2005 is fairly high
for Egypt (34.7 percent) and Tunisia (30.1 percent). Mauritius (16.9 percent), South Africa (15.4 percent), and Morocco (11.4 percent) are the only
other African countries with a participation rate higher than 10 percent. An
additional five countries have a participation rate equal to or higher than the
sub-Saharan average of 5.1 percent. They are Cape Verde (6.9 percent),
Namibia (6.2 percent), Cameroon (5.7 percent), Senegal (5.5 percent), and
Botswana (5.1 percent). Another eleven countries have a participation rate
higher than just 2 percent. However, in many countries the proportion of the
eligible age group that participates in higher education is below 1 percent.
Among this last group are Malawi (0.5 percent) and Tanzania (0.3 percent).
Steyn and De Villiers (2006) calculated the South African gross participation rate, with the inclusion of incorporated teacher training colleges, at
16.7 percent. The South African National Plan for Higher Education indicated a target participation rate of 20 percent of the age group twenty to
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twenty-four over the next ten years, the same as the gross participation rate
of middle-income countries. It is debatable whether the target of the
National Plan will be sufficient to keep pace with demand. As pointed out
by Cooper and Subotzky (2001), although the participation rate is relatively
high for a developing country it is skewed per racial group, especially in
the higher qualification types.
The 2008 Education for All Global Monitoring Report (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2008) shows that only 4 of the 144 countries with available data achieved gender parity at the tertiary level by 2005, and of these
four countries only Botswana is in Africa. Thus women remain at a serious
disadvantage in most sub-Saharan African countries, with just sixty-eight
women enrolled for every one hundred men since 1999.
Sawyerr (2004) raises the matter of new forms of social exclusion. He
reports that immediately after independence the number of students,
although small, was generally drawn from the various social classes and all
parts of the country. The participation in higher education was never equitable, but the source of supply was sufficiently broad to form the basis for
establishment of a truly national elite. According to Sawyerr, recent studies
indicate that in many cases the source of recruitment remained limited, and
in some instances it narrowed. Some of the most dramatic cases are Ghana,
Mozambique, and Uganda. Cooper and Subotzky (2001) reported skewed
participation by qualification level and fields of study in South Africa. This
lack of social equity in participation raises important questions about access
and equity for traditionally marginalized groups and areas.
Teferra and Altbach (2004) point out that in some countries there is a
well-developed private university system, whereas in most African countries
private higher education is just starting to become an option. In Kenya, one
of the few African countries with a well-established private higher education system, thirteen of the nineteen universities are private, but private
institutions account for only 20 percent of overall enrollment. In Sudan, the
number of private institutions increased from one in 1989 to twenty-two
in 2001, and the number of enrollments went from fewer than 3,000 in
199091 to 24,000 in 199495. The Democratic Republic of Congo had
more than 260 private institutions operating in 1996, but it is not clear how
many were actually institutions of higher education. In Ghana, there are
eleven private institutions approved to conduct degree programs in addition
to the five public universities and eight polytechnics. In Madagascar, there
are six public institutions and sixteen private institutions with a combined
enrollment of fewer than two thousand students. None of the private institutions has more than five hundred students. According to Sawyerr (2004),
the number of private universities in Tanzania increased from one in 1990
to eleven by 2000, and in Uganda from two to ten. Sawyerr (2004) identifies the recent movers in this regard as Burundi and Ghana. With the current political unrest in a number of these countries, the future of private
institutions may be under threat, although student numbers have increased
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in the past in certain instances during times of conflict. Other countries

where some private institutions exist, or where private institutions have
recently been established, are Liberia, Togo, Mozambique, and South Africa.
The growth in private institutions is mainly among those run by religious
organizations. In general, it can be concluded that private higher education
institutions are in most cases a recent development in Africa.
Sawyerr (2004) mentions a number of specific features of African
higher education in general: (1) the majority of higher education institutions are public, with mandates that define them as part of national development projects; (2) enrollment is exploding but still there is a huge unmet
demand; (3) low national and average household incomes mean that the
expenditure on higher education forms a larger component of household
budgets than elsewhere in the world, even though the per capita higher
expenditure is lower in Africa than elsewhere; (4) generally low literacy
combined with pervasive poverty at both the national and the household
levels makes it difficult to sustain higher education at the level of coverage
and quality required by needs and demands; (5) many African higher education institutions have poor infrastructure for teaching and research and
weak links to the global knowledge system; (6) diversity is rising in the
demands on higher education from governments, students, the community,
and the productive sector; (7) rising market ideology has a predictable
impact on all social sectors; and (8) national higher education systems are
diversifying, with the increased presence of private institutions, domestic
and foreign-based, as well as off-campus sites for teaching and research.
From this information, it is clear that Africa faces significant challenges
if it is to provide the required higher education and achieve a participation
level on par with other developing countries overall. To reach participation achieved by developed countries will require many decades, perhaps
more than a century, unless creative ways can be found to address this serious problem. Private institutions can make a significant contribution if the
affordability and funding issues can be resolved.
Funding and the Cost to Students. Higher education everywhere,
even in developed countries, is facing financial constraints. With a few
exceptions, higher education institutions in Africa are experiencing a severe
financial crisis. Teferra and Altbach (2004) list five causes for this crisis:
(1) pressures of massification that require expansion to cater for the large
increase in student numbers (as evident from the demand, it can be expected
that this situation will deteriorate further); (2) economic problems faced by
many African countries; (3) a changed fiscal climate induced by the policies
of multilateral lending agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF); (4) inability of students to afford the tuition
required for financial stability and in some cases the inability of institution policies to charge tuition fees due to political and other pressures; and
(5) misallocation and poor use of available financial resources by higher education institutions.
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Public expenditure on education as a percentage of GNP in Africa

already exceeds that of other developing countries and also developed countries, with the exception of Northern America. Steyn and De Villiers (2006)
indicate that the United States spends approximately 2.7 percent of gross
domestic product (GDP) on higher education. This is the highest proportion of all countries. African countries spend on average 0.85 percent of
their GDP on higher education, which is on par with the prevalent trend. It
needs to be noted that according to Weber (2005), in general more than 90
percent of higher education funding in Africa is generated from government
resources and very little from student fees (there are some rare exceptions,
such as Lesotho). The development of third-stream income that includes
philanthropic funding such as donations and endowments, entrepreneurial
funding such as consultancy, contract research and short learning programs
and courses, and earmarked research allocations from research agencies is
becoming more important in South African higher education.
There are a few countries that are not in a financial dilemma. In Nigeria, government funds for higher education are expected to more than double. Botswana, with a small population and considerable mineral wealth, has
given its higher education sector adequate funding.
It is not common on the African continent for student fees to be levied
for higher education. Where student fees are charged, the sum is often relatively small compared to the total cost of higher education, because communities cannot afford high fees and there is a culture of not charging. In
Botswana, the government provides free education at all levels to its citizens, even for studies in other countries in certain circumstances. This is
sustainable because the government receives considerable income from mining and the population is relatively small.
Governance and Internal Management. Teferra and Altbach (2004)
point out that public higher education dominates in Africa and that government involvement in university affairs is the norm. In English-speaking
countries, the chancellorship is a symbolic position and vice-chancellors,
equivalent to American university presidents, have the executive power. The
council is often largely composed of government-appointed members and,
in some countries, students.
In South Africa, businesses, alumni, and staff are also represented. The
role of the council vis--vis university management varies. In some cases the
council does not perform a proper oversight role and is merely symbolic,
while in other cases the council interferes with operational management.
The deans of faculties or colleges are more and more becoming full-time
managers and are seen as part of senior management. This has implications
for their roles, as will be seen in the next section.
Changing Roles of Academics. The number of academic staff in
African universities has not kept pace with the increasing student population. Even in South Africa, where these ratios are generally more favorable
than in most African countries, the situation deteriorated to a point where
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the balance between productivity gains and the quality of teaching are coming under threat. According to Steyn and De Villiers (2006), the student-tolecturer ratio (weighted FTE students: FTE instruction/research personnel)
in South African universities deteriorated from 13:8 in 1986 to 20:59 in
2003. This, of course, has strong implications for quality of lecturer interaction with students as well as concerns about overall teachinglearning
process.
The traditional role of academics and collegial governance are also under
threat, and a move to focus on the bottom line may be to the detriment of traditional academic values. Aggravating the threat caused by this managerialism and the changing role of academics, the number of nonacademic
(support) staff is excessive in many African countries. Examples are Madagascar, Togo, and Lesotho, where there were twice as many nonacademic staff as
academics in 2003 (Teferra and Altbach, 2004). In Africa, where resources are
already scarce, this is viewed as unaffordable in light of other academic needs.
Aging Academics, Brain Drain, and Need for Capacity Building. According to Sawyerr (2004), the first generation of African academics,
who were educated mostly in the 1960s and earlier, were educated to the
highest international standards at home and abroad. The second generation,
in the 1970s and early 1980s, then followed the practice of continuing graduate studies abroad, but because of the harsh economic conditions that developed during this period almost all who could remained abroad, thereby
causing a brain drain. By the mid-1980s, local economic circumstances and
the tightening of opportunities for study abroad, especially in Europe, resulted
in academics having to complete their studies at home at a time when library
holdings, as well as the quality of teaching and research at most African universities, were in decline. This third generation therefore suffered as a result
of the decline in quality and frequently did not have the opportunity to complete their doctoral studies. This group forms the bulk of the current academics at most African universities.
Owing to the economic decline in the 1970s and early 1980s and severe
inflation, incentive packages for academics deteriorated significantly. The
result was an exodus of some of the best academics to other countries and
to business, especially young and midcareer academics, and the inability of
many universities to recruit or retain an adequate number of qualified
replacements. Examples of this decline include Cte dIvoire, where the
number of academics dropped from 828 in 1995 to 412 in 2000; and Nigeria, where universities are understaffed by an average of 50 percent in
respect to academics and in some cases as high as 70 percent. In many
African countries, this is aggravated by academics leaving for other parts of
the continent, such as South Africa, where better opportunities exist. Furthermore, the age structure of academics is skewed as a result of this brain
drain and retirement. Sawyerr (2004) reports that in a number of African
countries around 40 percent of the teaching and research staff is over fifty
years of age. This is true in the Congo, Cte dIvoire, Nigeria, and Senegal.
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Inefficiencies. African universities suffer in general from poor, inefficient, and highly bureaucratic management systems (Teferra and Altbach,
2004). In general, corruption and embezzlement of funds are not common
in African universities. The biggest threat to inefficiency is the lack of sufficient, well-trained academic staff and appropriate infrastructure, such as
library holdings, laboratories, equipment, computers, and adequate physical facilities.
Diversity and Equality. It is widely acknowledged that diversity
enriches the learning experience and understanding of society and the
issues that are grappled with. It is therefore imperative that African higher
education should allow, encourage, and promote diversity.
Mainly from the colonial legacy, many African countries still have
inequality of access to higher education, where only children from more
affluent neighborhoods and select constituencies obtain the necessary K12
education to enable them to gain access to higher education.
Cooper and Subotzky (2001) describe trends in the composition of
higher education students in South Africa. They conclude that the number
of African students increased dramatically after 1984, from approximately
20 percent to more than 50 percent of the total higher education population,
and that African females replaced white males as the dominant group in
South African higher education. Although the number of white female students increased, the number of white male students declined significantly.
This resulted in a major change from 1988, when white males were the
largest group, followed by white females and then African males and African
females. By 1993, the order had changed to African females, African males,
white females, and then white males. However, the representation across all
subject areas and qualification levels is still not equitable, and greater efforts
are required in order to reach an equitable distribution of students in science
and at higher qualification levels, especially masters and doctoral degrees.
Because of the skewed distribution at the level of masters and doctoral
degrees, the race and gender distribution of lecturers is also not equitable,
especially at higher levels. African males, in particular, are underrepresented
in many subject areas. In traditional male-dominated subject areas such as
science, females in general, but especially Africa females, are still underrepresented.

Implications for Institutional Research

It is clear that many of the challenges African universities are facing are similar to those faced by higher education institutions worldwide. It is also evident, however, that many of these issues are localized. The implications for
institutional research are significant and far-reaching, and many cut across
more than one category, across the spectrum of planning, quality assurance,
management information systems, governance, management, and relevance
of the institution.
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The implications for planning are obvious and cover a range of aspects,
from ensuring that participation is increased to meeting needs, but also ensuring equitable access and participation. Equity of outcomes will also have
to be addressed, because in many cases students are underprepared and will
have to receive additional support if they are to successfully complete their
studies. The challenge of a low literacy rate, inequitable distribution of
resources at primary and secondary school levels, insufficient quantity and
quality of academics, and financial constraints will all have to be monitored
and evaluated to yield appropriate inputs for the planning process. In particular, successes need to be studied and adapted to local circumstances.
Given the specific environment of higher education in Africa, appropriate quality benchmarks will have to be developed while maintaining relevant
international benchmarks. Of particular importance is the need to ensure the
quality of academics by resolving academic education and mentoring. Another
important issue is relevance of the curriculum, and inclusion of African
indigenous knowledge systems to supplement and complement universal
knowledge systems.
Development of appropriate information systems to support planning,
monitoring, and evaluation; quality assurance; and the building of capacity
within the university community to use these systems to leverage enhanced
decision making and management of higher education institutions will also
have to form an important cornerstone. These should also include national
and regional information. Sufficient attention should be given to enable
comparison within countries and across borders for the region.
Those responsible for the governance and management of higher education institutions will have to find an appropriate balance between academic freedom and accountability, traditional academic values and
administration, and professional management of higher education institutions based on sound foundations, such as enterprise and business architectures and appropriate management techniques.
It will be imperative to undertake much more in-depth research into
social factors at the micro and macro levels that might explain many of the
trends and patterns mentioned earlier. These explanations and a firm understanding of the trends, based on qualitative research, are required to inform
future policies and planning.

Conclusion
For Africa to accelerate its development and achieve the Millennium Development Goals, African countries will have to increase their investment in
science and technology. Expenditure on research and development will have
to be increased to at least 1 percent of GDP by 2020. The challenges that
face African higher education are serious, but higher education in Africa has
a long history. There are certainly opportunities, and with appropriate
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research and creative effort, a long and bright future could be waiting for
African higher education.
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HERMAN VISSER is director of information analysis, Department of Information

and Strategic Analysis, University of South Africa.
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH DOI: 10.1002/ir