The impact of corruption and university education on African innovation: evidence from emerging African economies

Abstract

Extant research has argued that university education plays an important role in engendering national level innovation. University education helps to increase innovation that in turn generates capital resources for the economy. This in turn supports R&D institutes and universities to generate and implement new creative ideas. This study, therefore, employed a panel data analysis for 19 African countries from 2011 to 2017 to investigate the role of university education in promoting African innovation. Sample data provided by UNESCO and The Global Economy were collected. The results indicated that university enrollment, graduates and expenditure are not major predictors of innovation and hi-tech export. But University graduate and expenditure have a negative impact on information technology export, whereas corruption extend the positive effect of university education (university enrolment, graduates, and expenditure) on innovation, hi-tech export, and information technology export. We recommend that standard operating procedures should be designed and implemented to ensure procedural foundations and awareness against elements of professional misconducts in education. Policymakers shall provide transparent criteria to ensure transparency in allocation of the university expenditures and promote anti-corruption education.