The Dragon's Deal: Sino-African Cooperation in Higher Education

Milton Obamba

doi:10.6017/ihe.2013.72.6102

Abstract

China and Africa have a long tradition of bilateral cooperation. The establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2000 has dramatically revolutionized Sino-African cooperation. It is an intergovernmental agency established jointly by China and African countries to provide a plan for strengthening bilateral cooperations between China and 50 African member countries. The emergence of FOCAC can be more accurately interpreted as part of the increasing institutionalization and intensification of Sino-African relations, at a time of deepening multilateral interactions, although critiques have intensified simultaneously.

Highlights

HUMAN CAPACITY AND ACADEMIC MOBILITY The earliest form of educational cooperation between China and Africa consisted of relatively small-scale and diffuse patterns of exchanges involving the outbound mobility of African students and inbound movement of Chinese teachers during the 1950s and 1960s
To focus on the development, character, and scope of Sino-African cooperation in the field of education, the article is based on an analysis of policy documents produced by the Chinese government and Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC)
The third FOCAC summit contained Beijing’s pledge to build 100 rural schools in Africa, while the fourth summit provided the construction of 50 China-Africa friendship schools and providing research equipment to African researchers returning from China

Summary

Introduction

HUMAN CAPACITY AND ACADEMIC MOBILITY The earliest form of educational cooperation between China and Africa consisted of relatively small-scale and diffuse patterns of exchanges involving the outbound mobility of African students and inbound movement of Chinese teachers during the 1950s and 1960s. The establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2000 has dramatically revolutionized Sino-African cooperation. To focus on the development, character, and scope of Sino-African cooperation in the field of education, the article is based on an analysis of policy documents produced by the Chinese government and FOCAC.

Results

Conclusion