Cloete: Universities and economic development in

Pact, academic core and coordination

Nico Cloete, Tracy Bailey

• Publisher: African Minds
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781920355807
• eBook ISBN: 9781920355838
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Development Economics

Universities and economic development in Africa: Pact, academic core and coordination draws together evidence and synthesises the findings from eight African case studies. The three key findings presented in this report are as follows: 1. There is a lack of clarity and agreement (pact) about a development model and the role of higher education in development, at both national and institutional levels. There is, however, an increasing awareness, particularly at government level, of the importance of universities in the global context of the knowledge economy. 2. Research production at the eight African universities is not strong enough to enable them to build on their traditional undergraduate teaching roles and make a sustained contribution to development via new knowledge production. A number of universities have manageable student-staff ratios and adequately qualifi ed staff, but inadequate funds for staff to engage in research. In addition, the incentive regimes do not support knowledge production. 3. In none of the countries in the sample is there a coordinated effort between government, external stakeholders and the university to systematically strengthen the contribution that the university can make to development. While at each of the universities there are exemplary development projects that connect strongly to external stakeholders and strengthen the academic core, the challenge is how to increase the number of these projects. The project on which this report is based forms part of a larger study on Higher Education and Economic Development in Africa, undertaken by the Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network in Africa (HERANA). HERANA is coordinated by the Centre for Higher Education Transformation in South Africa.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• Tables, figures and boxes
• About this report
• A note about the data timeframe
• Acknowledgements
• The project group
• Acronyms and abbreviations
• Executive summary
• Chapter 1 - Introduction
• Chapter 2 - Universities and economic development: Evidence of a pact?
• Chapter 3 - The academic core of eight African universities
• Chapter 4 - Coordination and connectedness
• Chapter 5 - Conclusions and some implications
• List of sources
• Appendix A. A higher education and development profile of the countries
• Appendix B. List of interviewees
• Appendix C. Indicators of pact, coordination and implementation
• Appendix D. Problems in collecting academic core data
• Appendix E. Academic core indicators and ratings
• Back cover