By Ibrahim oanda Ogachi Kenyatta University

1. Internationalization of Higher Education and the Direction of Research and Development for Africa in African Universities By Ibrahim oanda Ogachi Kenyatta University

2. Introduction • The idea of African Development in African Universities as opposed to universities in Africa • Research and Development imperatives for African Universities • Internationalization of Higher Education and emerging threats to ownership of research and Development initiatives in African Universities • Opportunities and Possibilities

3. The idea of African Development in African Universities • How to define development and the role of universities has been consistently raised in terms of the quest to decolonize curricula and research undertakings • Present concern-related to output and relevance of research to Africa's development problems. • Concerns not new-in the immediate post-independence period-the universalization of American social science models in African universities was seen as a process of using universities in Africa and African communities and laboratories to test new western economic and scientific models. • Currently-indicators of universities in Africa’s contribution to global pool of scientific research and innovation ranks low. • The benefits of such research to alleviate problems facing African societies doubtful

4. Cont’d • Africa’s share of world science as measured by papers published in ISI indexes has been declining steadily over the past decades • Between 2000-2004-africa’s contribution to publication of scientific knowledge averaged 1.8%, and less than 0.1% to scientific inventions-Scientometric assessments. • About 50% of these was produced in South Africa and Egypt • Decreasing external support to developing Africa’s science and technology despite pledges, with most donors spending money on overseas students studying in their institutions(African Commission Report 2010).

5. What then should research and Development in African Universities focus on?How do we decolonize and domesticate science and technology initiatives for African development? • Thebo Mbeki and the African Renaissance- higher education has an important role to play in the economic, social, cultural and political renaissance of our continent and in the drive for the development of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS). • R &D undertakings in Africa embrace an indigenous African world-view and root their nation's educational paradigms in an indigenous socio-cultural and epistemological framework. This implies that all educational curricula in Africa should have Africa as their focus, and be indigenous-grounded and orientated. • Create a new paradigm that locates the African condition, knowledge, experiences, values, world-view and mindset at the centre of our scholarship and knowledge-seeking • The African Science and Technology consolidated plan of Action(2005)-

6. Cont’d • The African Science and Technology consolidated plan of Action(2005) -commitment to collective actions to develop and use science and technology for the socio-economic transformation of the continent and its integration into the world economy. It is erected on three pillars. These are: (a) capacity building (b) knowledge production, and (c) technological innovation • The Plan of Action puts emphasis on developing an African system of research and technological innovation • African union-2nd decade for education in Africa- talks of the need to promote “original knowledge production” and research in tertiary education • Interventions to restore the linkage between science and development in order to enhance the relevance of HE systems and strengthen Africa’s position as a generator of global knowledge and culture • Pan-African University of S & T proposal

7. What possibilities does internationalization of HE offer for an African led-relevant R&D undertakings?Is the present era of higher education internationalization free from the patronizing tendencies of the 1960s and 1970s? • Internationalization-been examined largely as a process that should be reciprocal but not so. The contribution of HE institutions from Africa not known or acknowledged objectively • Too much focus on student and academic physical mobility without acknowledging this involves transfer of financial resources and human capital hence eroding research capacity in African HE. • In importing countries, the annual value of higher education imports is large compared to what they spend on domestic public higher education(SajithaBashir 2007). • This represents an enormous transfer of capital to developed countries that can be deployed for research. • But more importantly is the need to examine the direction and quality of knowledge mobility and the inequalities that mark the this processes.

8. Cont’d • Dominance of humanities and languages in the academic programs moving to Africa, and absence of large scale investments in science and technology disciplines as happening in Asia and the middle East (Columbus university research centers etc) • At home, underfunded universities abandoning research altogether in preference of more teaching . • Increased emergence of foreign owned research centers-led to the movement scientific skills from the universities. • Coupled with the emergence of new regimes of intellectual property rights that tie patent ownership and knowledge use to funding sources means both public universities and the African society may miss on this knowledge or find it expensive to utilize it.

9. Cont’d • Internationalization -accompanied by knowledge producing process that disadvantage the African university as a site for knowledge production-erosion of critical research capacity and lack of an African based research led development have been secured through the aid architecture. • Increased parallel funding of R&d activities outside the universities, set African priorities- the Africa-U.S. Higher Education Initiative –overlooked the African union’s ‘Consolidated Science and Technology Plan of Action’ . • the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) and the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, and the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) in partnership with Higher Education for Development (HED), and the American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC) - initiative to strengthen African higher education capacity in science and technology for development .

10. Cont’d • Increased standardization of few languages to drive higher education internationalization-marginalizes African languages through which access to much science and technology knowledge can be gained-how do higher education institutions internationalize while domesticating science and technology knowledge and innovations • How do African universities instantiate science and technology priorities without being patronized by funding sources? • How can science and technology initiatives link with ordinary problems that African communities face?

11. Opportunities and Possibilities • The issue is not intellectual isolation but autonomy in developing knowledge systems to link with others in a reciprocal basis • Increased attention to these concerns through adopting pan-African approaches-the AAU, Regional research organizations, the AU. • The need to look inward for means of generating resource for science and technology initiatives(Costa Rica example-freeze in defense budgets, science and technology tax etc). • Increase in intra-African university partnerships in R&D –Can south Africa and North Africa offer both intellectual and political leadership. • Possibilities of exploiting Diaspora connections and resources-so many African scientists have contributed to producing scientific knowledge outside Africa.