The dominant global discourse in higher education now focuses on world-class universities inevitably located predominantly in North America, Europe and, increasingly, East Asia. The rest of the world, including Africa, is left to play catch-up. But that discourse should focus rather on the tensions, even contradictions, between excellence and engagement with which all universities must grapple. Here the African experience has much to offer the high-participation and generously resourced systems of the so-called developed world. This book offers a critical review of that experience, and so makes a major contribution to our understanding of higher education.

This volume brings together excellent scholarship and innovative policy discussion to demonstrate the essential role of higher education in the development of Africa and of the world at large. Based on deep knowledge of the university system in several African countries, this book will reshape the debate on development in the global information economy for years to come. It should be mandatory reading for academics, policy-makers and concerned citizens, in Africa and elsewhere." - Manuel Castells, Professor Emeritus, University of California at Berkeley, Laureate of the Holberg Prize 2012 and of the Balzan Prize 2013.

This book examines the influence of an important body of international literature on the development of post-apartheid policies in higher education and training and in science and technology. The book also examines a related phenomenon, the so-called 'massification' and democratisation of higher education world-wde over the past two decades.

Besides the ongoing concern with the epistemological and theoretical hegemony of the West in African academic practice, the book aims at understanding how knowledge is produced and controlled through the interplay of the politics of knowledge and current intellectual discourses in universities in Africa. In this regard, the book calls for African universities to relocate from the position of object to subject in order to gain a form of liberated epistemological voice more responsive to the social and economic complexities of the continent. In itself, this is a critical exposé of contemporary practices in knowledge advancement in the continent. Broadly the book addresses the following questions: How can African universities reinvent knowledge production and dissemination in the face of the dominant Eurocentricism so pervasive and characteristic of academic practice in Africa to enhance their relevance to the contexts in which they operate? How can such change, particularly at knowledge production and distribution levels, be undertaken, without falling into an intellectual and discursive ghettoization in the global context? What then is the role of academics, policy makers and curriculum and program designers in dealing with biases and distortions to integrate policies, knowledge and pedagogy that reflect current cultural diversity, both local and global? Against this backdrop, while some contributions in this book argue that emancipatory epistemic voice in African universities is not yet born, or it is struggling with little success, many dissenting voices charge that if Africans do not take responsibility and construct knowledge strategies for their own emancipation, who will?

From the early 2000s, a new discourse emerged, in Africa and the international donor community, that higher education was important for development in Africa. Within this ‘zeitgeist’ of converging interests, a range of agencies agreed that a different, collaborative approach to linking higher education to development was necessary. This led to the establishment of the Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network in Africa (Herana) to concentrate on research and advocacy about the possible role and contribution of universities to development in Africa. This book is the final publication to emerge from the Herana project. The project has also published more than 100 articles, chapters, reports, manuals and datasets, and many presentations have been delivered to share insights gained from the work done by Herana. Given its prolific dissemination, it seems reasonable to ask whether this fourth and final publication will offer the reader anything new. This book is certainly different from previous publications in several respects. First, it is the only book to include an analysis of eight African universities based on the full 15 years of empirical data collected by the project. Second, previous books and reports were published mid-project. This book has benefited from an extended gestation period allowing the authors and contributors to reflect on the project without the distractions associated with managing and participating in a large-scale project. For the first time, some of those who have been involved in Herana since its inception have had the opportunity to at least make an attempt to see part of the wood for the trees. Different does not necessarily mean new. An emphasis on the ‘newness’ of the data and perspectives presented in this book is important because it shows that it is more than a historical record of a donor-funded project. Rather, each chapter in this book brings, to a lesser or greater extent, something new to our understanding of universities, research and development in Africa.

While African universities retain their core function as primary institutions for advancement of knowledge, they have undergone fundamental changes in this regard. These changes have been triggered by a multiplicity of factors, including the need to address past economic and social imbalances, higher education expansion alongside demographic and economic growth concerns, and student throughput and success with the realization that greater participation has not meant greater equity. Constraining these changes is largely the failure to recognize the encroachment of the profit motive into the academy, or a shift from a public good knowledge/learning regime to a neo-liberal knowledge/learning regime. Neo-liberalism, with its emphasis on the economic and market function of the university, rather than the social function, is increasingly destabilizing higher education particularly in the domain of knowledge, making it increasingly unresponsive to local social and cultural needs. Corporate organizational practices, commodification and commercialization of knowledge, dictated by market ethics, dominate university practices in Africa with negative impact on professional values, norms and beliefs. Under such circumstances, African humanist progressive virtues (e.g. social solidarity, compassion, positive human relations and citizenship), democratic principles (equity and social justice) and the commitment to decolonization ideals guided by altruism and common good, are under serious threat. The book goes a long way in unraveling how African universities can respond to these challenges at the levels of institutional management, academic scholarship, the structure of knowledge production and distribution, institutional culture, policy and curriculum.

Bringing a needed perspective on African Epistemologies on the critical topics of higher education in relation to knowledge systems, this book highlights how knowledge creation processes influence higher education systems, society, and African development. This book uses an interdisciplinary approach to frame the connections between academic knowledge systems. Specifically, it seeks to answer questions on the trends in knowledge mobility, histories, and sociological dimensions in knowledge production in post-colonial Africa. The discussion explores how existing knowledge systems can better align with past and present narratives throughout African history and philosophies. The primary thought behind this book is to deconstruct the idea of a free market, the issue of corruption, racism and the neoliberalist approach to knowledge creation and transmission. Thus, it seeks to answer questions on the history and sociological dimensions of knowledge production in higher education. The book argues that African epistemologies can be better understood by investigating present sociologies and histories shaping African higher education research. Researchers and university students in the field of sociology of education, economics of education, higher education and policy will find this book very useful.