Equity and Quality in the Revitalisation of African Higher Education: Trends and Challenges

Over the past decade, the largest growth in Sub-Saharan Africa’s private higher education has been among institutions with religious affiliations. This article examines the rise of private, religious higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa with international affiliations. Using an analysis of multiple stakeholders from the region and international community, the rationales and implications of religion higher education Africa are considered. Accreditation, quality assurance, funding, and development assistance are explored as key issues within African higher education. This article concludes with a discussion of the global divide between secular and religious ideologies and calls for more research into the impacts of religious higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The purpose of this publication is to provide a reference source on key topics in higher education. Chapters in the first volume cover central themes in the study of higher education, while contributors to the second volume focus on contemporary higher education issues within specific countries or regions. Part one 'Global themes and contemporary challenges' contains the following chapters: Introduction / Philip G. Altbach and James J. F. Forest; The academic profession / Jurgen Enders; Accountability and quality assurance: new issues for academic inquiry / Elaine El-Khawas; Curricula in international perspective / Lisa R. Lattuca; Doctoral education: present realities and future trends / Philip G. Altbach; Higher education finance: trends and issues / Arthur M. Hauptman; For-profit higher education: US tendencies, international echoes / Kevin Kinser and Daniel C. Levy; Globalization and the university: realities in an unequal world / Philip G. Altbach; Governance and administration: organizational and structural trends / Barbara Sporn; History of universities / Harold Perkin; Internationalization: concepts, complexities and challenges / Jane Knight; Higher education management: challenges and strategies / George Keller; Reflections on the transition from elite to mass to universal access: forms and phases of higher education in modern societies since WWII / Martin Trow; The private fit in the higher education landscape / Daniel C. Levy; Beyond private gain: the public benefits of higher education / David E. Bloom, Matthew Hartley, and Henry Rosovsky; Research and scholarship / Grant Harman; Student politics: activism and culture / Philip G. Altbach; Teaching and learning in higher education / James J. F. Forest; Rhetoric or reality?: technology in borderless higher education / Svava Bjarnason; Part two 'Regions and countries' contains: Section one 'Regional perspectives': Higher education in the Arab world / Linda Herrera; Higher education in Central and Eastern Europe / Peter Scott; Higher education developing countries / David E. Bloom and Henry Rosovsky; European integration in higher education: the Bologna Process towards a European high education area / Hans de Wit; Higher education in French-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa / Juma Shabani; Latin American university transformation in the 1990s: altered identities? / Marcela Mollis; Higher education in Scandinavia / Evanthia Kalpazidou Schmidt; Higher education in Southeast Asia in the era of globalization / Molly N. N. Lee; Higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa / Damtew Teferra; Section two 'National perspectives': Argentina / Ana M. Garcia de Fanelli; Australia / Simon Marginson; Brazil / Simon Schwartzman; Canada / Glen A. Jones; Chile / Jose Joaquin Brunner and Anthony Tillett; China / Ruth Hayhoe and Qiang Zha; Egypt / Iman Farag; France / Christine Musselin; Germany / Barbara M. Kehm; India / N. Jayaram; Indonesia / M. K. Tadjudin; Iran / Abbas Bazargan; Israel / Yaacov Iram; Italy / Roberto Moscati; Japan / Akiyoshi Yonezawa; Kenya / Charles K. Ngome; Korea / Namgi Park; Mexico / Hugo Casanova-Cardiel; The Netherlands / Egbert de Weert; Nigeria / Munzali Jibril; Poland / Wojciech Duczmal; Russia / Anna Smolentseva; South Africa / Chika Trevor Sehoole; Spain / Jose-Gines Mora; Turkey / Hasan Simsek; United Kingdom / Michael Shattock; United States / Peter D. Eckel and Jacqueline E. King.

Purpose This study aims to examine the state of literature on the role of e-learning in the sustainability of higher education institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the goal of identifying explored thematic areas, finding out the deficiencies in extant literature and recommending areas of future research work. Design/methodology/approach The research used a systematic literature review, examining articles published between 2012 and 2022. In total, 52 publications were identified and subjected to analysis. Findings The findings reveal that few studies have explored the relationship between e-learning and the sustainability of higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa, with larger economies in the region dominating research output. In addition, traditional technology adoption and social learning theories dominate the theoretical frameworks in this area. Moreover, the authors observed limited adaptation of these theories to local contexts, leading to outcomes with limited contextual details or lack of the same. Despite its potential, e-learning has yet to be fully embraced as a strategic tool for the sustainability of higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Originality/value Although various systematic literature reviews exist in the field of sustainability in higher education, there seem to be no reviews specifically focused on e-learning within the context of Sub-Saharan Africa. This review sheds some light on potential future research paths regarding the theory, content and context of e-learning for the sustainability of higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa, and by extension, in developing countries worldwide.

List of Contributors. Preface. The Incalculable Promise of the African Continent: Higher Education Rising to the Occasion?. An Overview of African Higher Education and Development. Trends in Internationalization of Higher Education and Implications for Research and Innovation for Development in African Universities. Cross-Border Higher Education in Africa: Collaboration and Competition. Steering Rather than Rowing: Internationalism, Privatization, and University Reform in Tanzania. Power of Global-Local Partnerships: An Assessment of Global, National and Local Stakeholders of Religious, Higher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Search of Equity and Access in Higher Education in Namibia: Challenges and Achievements. Charting Higher Education Development in Ghana: Growth, Transformations, and Challenges. Language in Higher Education Transformation: Contrasts and Similarities between Two African Universities. Knowledge Production in the Knowledge Economy: Higher Education Institutions and the Application of Innovations in ICT for Capacity Development in Africa. Challenges and Experiences in Doing University Collaboration in North-South Projects. Towards African Higher Education Regionalization and Harmonization: Functional, Organizational and Political Approaches. European Education Policies and the Uniformization of Higher Education in Europe: Some 'Lessons' from the Bologna Process for Education and Teacher Education in Africa. Policy Spaces and Educational Development in the Islamic Maghreb Region: Higher Education in Tunisia. Rethinking Agency in University Development: The Case of the Association of African Universities. Rethinking Higher Education Curriculum in Nigeria to Meet Global Challenges in the 21st Century. About the Authors. Author Index. Subject Index. The Development of Higher Education in Africa: Prospects and Challenges. International Perspectives on Education and Society. The Development of Higher Education in Africa: Prospects and Challenges. Copyright page. Endorsement.

The study focuses on strengthening higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa through John Dewey’s My Pedagogic Creed. Many educationists widely admire Dewey’s philosophy of education, yet his enduring message—the inseparable connection between education and society—is often misunderstood. His deep understanding of the connection between the school and the larger social context is relevant to recent efforts by Sub-Saharan African governments to enhance authentic higher education. From the standpoint of Dewey’s fivefold themes—education, school, subject-matter, method, social progress—the study discusses the integration of educational resources for achieving the task of higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Though modern theorists may recast Dewey’s pragmatic theory of education, this social critical study proposes that Dewey’s placement of learners at the center of the interaction between the school and society points to a more satisfactory result that could reform higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The impact of the coronavirus disease (COVTD-19) will see an increase in data generated by higher education institutions (HEIs) in Sub-Saharan Africa as more institutions introduce online learning. HEIs are storing huge volumes of data since data collection has become an affordable activity in the data economy. This data can be mined to reveal hidden knowledge that can be used for informed decision-making. Educational data mining (EDM) within higher education has been gaining traction in the past two decades. This paper aims to explore and analyse existing research on EDM in institutions of higher learning in Sub-Saharan Africa and to offer recommendations for future EDM research in higher education in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) era. The paper provides a systematic literature review (SLR) on EDM in institutions of higher learning in the Sub-Saharan Africa region that covers a decade (2010--2019). Search terms used in the SLR identified 811 research articles on EDM with a focus on higher education, but only 24 were conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa. These articles were critically reviewed and analysed by applying an SLR approach. Analysis of these research articles reveals that EDM research in higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa is still in its infancy even though a notable increase in research output was observed in the years 2015--2019. The main finding of this paper is that very few Sub-Saharan African countries have embraced EDM to maximise on better educational management and the returns of the increased enrollment rates. The paper proposes a research agenda for HEIs in Sub-Saharan Africa based on current trends in EDM.

Many higher education institutions in sub-Saharan Africa have been blending traditional face-to-face delivery with various Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to meet the strong demand for higher education as well as to improve the quality of traditional campus programs. Despite the increased adoption of various forms of blended learning in the region, the cost of acquiring and managing ICT infrastructure remained to be the biggest challenge. While cloud computing can provide powerful computing at a fraction of the cost of traditional ICT infrastructure, its potential to enhance blended learning in higher education in sub-Saharan Africa is unexplored. This chapter proposes deployment and adoption strategy of cloud computing to enhance blended learning services in the region. This work contributes towards helping higher education in sub-Saharan Africa to understand cloud services and to make plans for successful migration of computing services into cloud.

Many higher education institutions in sub-Saharan Africa have been blending traditional face-to-face delivery with various Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to meet the strong demand for higher education as well as to improve the quality of traditional campus programs. Despite the increased adoption of various forms of blended learning in the region, the cost of acquiring and managing ICT infrastructure remained to be the biggest challenge. While cloud computing can provide powerful computing at a fraction of the cost of traditional ICT infrastructure, its potential to enhance blended learning in higher education in sub-Saharan Africa is unexplored. This chapter proposes deployment and adoption strategy of cloud computing to enhance blended learning services in the region. This work contributes towards helping higher education in sub-Saharan Africa to understand cloud services and to make plans for successful migration of computing services into cloud.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, the funding of higher education in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) steadily declined as investment emphasis shifted from higher education to basic education. By the second half of the 1990s, a more balanced view had developed of the relationship among primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of education. Unfortunately, there has been no way to quickly fix the deteriorated higher education infrastructure. Alternative systems of providing higher education have had to be explored. In 1998, the World Bank, CIDA (Canada), DfID (UK), and AusAID (Australia) collaborated to sponsor the introduction of a new form of distance education to SSA: the e-learning-based African Virtual University (AVU). Since then, the AVU has struggled to leapfrog over the debilitating problems of higher education institutions in the region and transform itself from an international agency/donor project into a full-fledged "virtual university." This essay outlines the circumstances and conditions that led to the development of the AVU, and examines its credibility as an alternative higher education strategy for SSA. It explores the effect that poor or nonexistent national information communication technology (ICT) infrastructures have had on the evolution of the AVU, and addresses whether, and how, such a top-down, externally imposed innovation can have a future in the region.

The relationships among higher education institutions (HEI s), states and society have always defined the nature of the transformation of higher education sectors. African higher education systems have passed through different transitions and carried out various roles since the time of their respective inceptions. Thus, it is crucial to understand their historical, socio-economic and political context to properly conceptualise HEI s’ roles and functions. Higher education interacts with an increasing number and variety of stakeholders within a constantly changing socio-economic and political landscape. The chapter provides an overview of the ongoing and changing roles and functions in African higher education in precolonial, postcolonial and contemporary contexts. It sets the scene for higher education transformation, reflecting on historical contexts, current realities and the future of African universities. The discussions in the chapter are framed by questions including: What roles and functions do African HEI s play in their respective societies? How can we design African universities that are optimally structured and calibrated within African contexts to facilitate the production of knowledge that diffuses into action for the common good? The chapter argues that African HEI s and their associated roles should be responsive to the needs, demands, capacities and aspirations of African societies. The policies of African universities need to be responsive to the changing environment and become progressive, thereby embracing innovative approaches as the hallmarks of quality.

Towards a conceptual framework for developing capabilities of ‘new’ types of students participating in higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa

Over the past decades, the development of the internationalisation of higher education has revised the conceptual framework of higher education, enhanced its scope, scale and importance, and transformed its world, as well as reshaping relationships between countries. More powerful universities play a central role and are suppliers of knowledge, whereas weaker institutions and systems with fewer resources and lower academic standards occupy a peripheral position and are consumers. The centre-periphery dichotomy in the internationalisation of higher education undoubtedly presents considerable challenges to the higher education institutions of the peripheries. For developing regions like Africa, higher education is an important instrument for socioeconomic development, and one of the strategies to improve and qualify higher education is internationalisation. In spite of various attempts to enhance the benefits of internationalisation, African higher education has continued to be peripheral, with relationships remaining asymmetrical, unethical and unequal. Along with some positive benefits, internationalisation has brought complicated implications and new challenges, such as the brain drain, cultural values, the commodification of higher education, the persistence of inequality between global north-south universities, and so on. The purpose of the present paper is to highlight the challenges and unintended consequences of the internationalisation of higher education, with a particular focus on Africa.

The massive global growth of private sectors transforms higher education. It naturally sparks great interest and debate. But analysis lags far behind, as does cross-national documentation. Promoters glorify roles (e.g., access), while critics demonize roles (e.g., moneymaking). Policy makers tend to hold simple views of what private higher education does or what they want it to do, while participants tend to generalize from their own institution. Public discussion thus often revolves around narrow and misleading declarations. The gap is large between self-serving or ill-informed views and more complex reality. Private higher education is least understood where it has just recently become prominent—and that is in much of the world. A few decades ago, private higher education was absent or marginal in most countries. Today, it captures a major or fast-increasing portion of enrollments in Eastern and Central Europe, the Middle East and northern and sub-Saharan Africa, East and South Asia, and Latin America. Furthermore, new forms of private

This article critically examines World Bank andother donor agency's policy changes towardfinancing of higher education in Sub-SaharanAfrica. It concludes that policy vicissitudeshave adversely affected these institutions. Therecommendation is that the unique context ofeach state play a role in higher educationfinancial policy formation and implementation.

The quality of computer science education in higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa is reported to be poor. This is due to acute shortage of well-trained faculty members, irrelevant and outdated curricula, and poor teaching methodology. Although several interventions exist to improve the quality of computer science education in the region, there have not yet been many attempts to systematically adapt and integrate Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in computer science education. This chapter presents approaches that can be used by faculty members to adapt and integrate MOOCs in order to enhance the quality of computer science education. These approaches are the first steps towards helping faculty members and institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa to utilize the potential of MOOCs to improve the quality of computer science education and to equip students with employable skills for both local and international IT industry.