Internationalisation of HE in Africa: current trends and perspectives

1. Internationalisation of HE in Africa: current trends and perspectives Prof Graham Furniss Chair, British Academy Africa Panel Commonwealth Scholarship Commissioner Pro-Director, SOAS, University of London

2. Internationalisation - definition • (Knight 2004) ‘...is the process of integrating international, intercultural and global dimensions into the goals, primary functions and delivery of higher education at the institutional and national levels.’

3. Many meanings • Student mobility • Networks, partnerships and joint projects • Delivering programmes abroad • Face to face or distance learning • Introducing international elements into the domestic curriculum • Improving rankings • Recruiting the best students and staff

4. Growth rates • Mobile students around 238,000 in the 1960s • Estimated at 1.2 million in 2000, 3.3 million in 2008 • Projected that by 2025 international education will grow to 7.2 million students • Singapore Ministry of Trade estimates HE sector to be a $2.2 trillion market

5. Changing frameworks • From scholarships for students from developing countries to the big business of international student recruitment • From mobile students to programme delivery to international providers with multiple campuses

6. Changing models • Knight (2011) sees the following: • Student hubs • Skilled workforce training hubs • Knowledge and innovation hubs • Regional and national roles

7. Student hubs • Aim to: • Generate revenue from international student fees • Increase access for local students • Modernise domestic HEIs • Increase profile in the international student market • Example -- Malaysia

8. Skilled workforce hubs • Aim to: • Develop skilled labour and knowledge workers • Increase economic competitiveness • Example – United Arab Emirates

9. Knowledge and innovation hubs • Aim to: • Build knowledge based economy • Educate skilled labour for knowledge and innovation • Attract foreign direct investment • Increase competitiveness and soft power • Example -- Singapore

10. Lofty expectations • These hubs have high expectations and many challenges • Are they sustainable? • Are the required plans in place? • Is there a critical mass of support in government and society? • Is it just another rhetorical fad?

11. Take one issue -- research • Start at the grassroots? • Thinking about the doing of research • But there are worrying statistics: • Royal Society report indicates that over a third of articles in scientific journals are jointly authored by researchers from different countries

12. Take one issue - research(cont.) • 1.1% of articles in international academic publications come from Africa • Half of these come from South Africa • How then to build collaboration in research?

13. Internationalisation through… • Networks and partnerships • What for? • Teaching collaboration • Research collaboration • Resource and service collaboration • ICT • Libraries; electronic resources • Management and systems

14. New and existing • Forging new partnerships • Tapping into existing networks • Of universities • Within disciplines • Within projects, themes and topics

15. “African answers to African problems” Since 2005 many reports NEPAD, Africa Commission, UNESCO, World Bank Debate about research in African universities Debate about the appropriate role of outside universities and frameworks of collaboration What does it mean in practice?

16. Paper frameworks • Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) • Formal processes between Vice-Chancellors • Exchanges: • Staff • Students • Visitors • Finances

17. What is being internationalised? • What are they really for? • What do individual staff members and departments want from networks and partnerships? • Institutional perspective versus grassroots perspective

18. Research cultures • For a university the key question is the presence or absence of a research culture in a unit or department • What are the components of a research culture? • How to engender and maintain a research culture in a department/discipline? • Not just in Africa but in any university, in the UK or elsewhere

19. At the heart of the issue • How do you recognise it when you see it? • How do you recognise its absence? • What are the essential components? • You can have all the bricks and mortar, salaries and staff, facilities and resources and yet nothing happening

20. At the heart of the issue (cont.) • People who talk to each other and share intellectual curiosity about the world around them • Willing to formulate, debate and research a question • Familiar with, and critical of, methods for addressing the question • Able to gather data, analyse and present the data and conclusions from it.

21. At the heart of the issue (cont.) Debate with, support and collaborate with colleagues at the same level, the next generation of upcoming scholars, and be supported by seniors Get their results into publication and disseminated Work together on formulating project and thus grant proposals

22. At the heart of the issue (cont.) Be invited to conferences to present the results of research Organise conferences at which others seek to come Maintain a balance between academic research, consultancy, teaching and administrative responsibilities

23. Critical mass • For some disciplines or departments, critical mass is an issue • Few people, isolated people • Few senior staff with research experience • Many junior staff needing doctorates

24. Joint local activity • Local disciplinary networks to create critical mass • Joint seminars, joint training programmes • Joint research activity, sharing resources • Institutions need to facilitate rather than prevent such activity – thus a governance issue

25. Models of collaboration • Hub and spokes model • Central methodological training • Central doctoral supervision • Local access to resources and grant funding through the centre • Risk of losing local talent to the centre and the outside world • Incentives to remain in the local environment

26. Career trajectories • Research culture and the research and teaching career trajectory • MA subject and research training • Doctorate in disciplinary methods and the values of scholarship • Early-career researcher (5-10 years after doctorate) risks • Maintaining research activity • Getting published

27. Career trajectories (cont.) • Building individual professional relationships of trust • Becoming known in the international networks and associations • Building the next generation

28. The Nairobi Report • Frameworks for Africa-UK research collaboration in the Humanities and Social Sciences • ACU and the British Academy with support from AAU and other Africa-based organisations such as OSSREA in Addis and NRF in South Africa • Lengthy process of discussion and consultation

29. 3 sections of the Nairobi Report • The Nairobi Report (ACU and British Academy) • Institutional foundations – improving structures, systems and governance • Communities and networks – forging collaborations within Africa • Investing in individuals – the early research career

30. 23 recommendations Downloadable from www.acu.ac.uk/publication/download?id=174

31. British Academy response • Continue the debate with ACU, CSC, HESA in South Africa, OSSREA, DFID, African universities • Monitor ‘Nairobi process’ (Paschal Mihyo) activities such as PASGR (social science skills training in Eastern Africa), ASAUK writing workshops, Fellowship schemes • Strengthen its own Partnership and Mobility Scheme funding

32. Following up on the Nairobi Report • Forthcoming follow-up study on early-career researchers by Jonathan Harle for the ACU and the British Academy • Based on discussion with alumni of the Commonwealth Scholarship Schemes, HESA (Higher Education South Africa) and in particular the VC of Wits who co-sponsored a discussion in SA, Deputy Vice-Chancellors for research at a number of UK universities, and a range of other organisations in Africa and the UK

33. Nairobi Report (cont.) • The follow-up report on early-career researchers will be discussed in later session at this conference by Dr John Law

34. The debate continues... Early-career issues were only one of the areas of interest in the Nairobi process Subject-associations as the locus for research training? What about senior and retired staff in African universities, their views and roles for the future? Linking research do-ers and managers better?

35. The debate continues in the UK... • The British Academy will want to continue its collaborations with the ACU, AAU, HESA, OSSREA, and the ASAUK and the BIEA in pursuing these questions, for itself and with other academies, in the UK and within the EU • For the BA, the health of the UK research community working on Africa will be linked to the health of the research community in Africa as it defines issues, adapts methodologies and publishes exciting new research.

36. Enduring values • Robbins Report on UK Higher Education (1963): Universities have an obligation to preserve and advance knowledge and to serve the intellectual needs of the nation. University teachers must keep abreast of new developments in their subjects and need time for reflection and personal study. Many also want to make their own contribution to such

37. Robbins Report (cont.) developments and this desire must not be frustrated if they are to remain intellectually active. In addition, the influence and authority of those who have become acknowledged experts in their fields of study radiate out far beyond the walls of the university in which they teach. Such persons are rightly required to undertake many duties in the cause of

38. Robbins Report (cont.) learning and in the interests of the country and indeed of the world, for learning is international. Thank you