9 September 1999
University of Stellenbosch
Theme of Conference International mobility: partners, practices and processes. Challenges facing higher education in developing countries
"The title I have chosen for my address is 'African Awakening and the Universities'. My object is to consider with you briefly, the task of the university in changing Africa and the contribution which South African universities in particular could make to a solution of the problems of modern Africa. Over a decade ago, a book on the subject of the nature and significance of contemporary problems in Africa opened with the arresting sentence: 'Africa staggers the Imagination'. If that was the position then, it would be difficult to find words to describe what happens to the imaginations of those who seek to reflect on the problems of Africa to-day."
That was not President Mbeki talking. Nor was it me talking. Nor was it Dr William Makgoba, nor Dr Mamphela Ramphele nor Prof Colin Bundy. No, the extract is from a lecture called African Awakening and the Universities, delivered by Prof Z K Matthews, the then Vice-Principal of the University College of Fort Hare and a courageous leading figure in the African National Congress, at the third T B Davie Memorial Lecture at the University of Cape Town on 15 August 1961. It was written over thirty-eight years ago!
The extract could so easily have been written today because the sentiments are still current on the African continent. It is quite clear that the idea given such focus and force by our President -- an African renaissance, a revival, an awakening -- is not a new one but one that constantly seeks to regenerate itself and find momentum in resolving the problems of the African continent.
What has changed since 1961? Are the conditions for achieving the dream different today? Will and can South African universities and technikons make a difference to the continent and contribute to President Mbeki's vision as Matthews thought South African Universities could, even in 1961?
Last year in his keynote address to the IEASA conference, Prof Colin Bundy, who is Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand, point to South Africa's academic isolation under apartheid and noted that South African universities and technikons are latecomers to the internationalisation of higher education. He asserted that our belated entry has advantages regarding lessons that can be learned from the experiences of others but that there were also a number of issues that had to be contended within our thinking of internationalisation. He noted increasing tension between the national character of universities and the extent to which they now operate inter- or trans-nationally. He suggested that, as knowledge becomes increasingly international in its production, circulation and consumption, the university of the 21st century might well become more detached, more independent, of the modern state.
This has profound implications, one of which is how we can prevent linkages and exchanges from perpetuating north-south inequalities. Professor Bundy's input serves to highlight the complexity of issues we fact.
You will want to know what government is doing and saying about these issues. If we are frank, we must admit that, at present, the Government has more questions than answers. For instance, when we talk about the internationalisation of higher education, what exactly do we mean? When we talk about becoming globally competitive what does this mean for human resource development, research production and national development?
There are some key challenges presented to South Africa in the development of a strategy on international relations in education.
These include ensuring the integration of South Africa into the global higher education and information networks, developing internationally competitive higher education, marketing it, working collaboratively in Africa, channelling donor support and training globally responsible citizens who respect and understand differences among themselves and others in the world.
Our most important challenge is to recognise the context in which we find ourselves. Our society is still abnormal and characterised by a vast legacy of inequality.One way of making sure that all institutions are able to engage is to promote international linkages in ways that involve partnerships between different South African universities and technikons. We must ensure that we make use of international linkages that give valuable support to our own institutional priorities.
While some of our institutions will be able to market themselves aggressively, others are still hindered and restrained by their own legacy of inequality. In a context where education is meant to be an integrated national system, how then do we deal with this?
I am aware that my Department, in conjunction with IEASA, the SA Universities' vice-chancellors' Association and the Committee of Technikon Principals, has initiated a process of developing a comprehensive policy framework for the internationalisation of South African higher education. This framework will hopefully identify the roles and responsibilities of government and institutions in taking forward our common agenda.
I now want to turn to the discussion of south-south relations on the African context.
The past twenty years have seen a deterioration of African higher education systems. This has been due to political and economic instability as well as the impact of structural adjustment policies on African education. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund's policies emphasised the importance of basic and general education over higher education. The effects on African institutions have been devastating. The UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education in 1998 noted the challenges facing the African region. Some of the problems reported include overcrowding, high teacher pupil ratios, inadequate buildings, shortages of books, journals and equipment, loss of high quality staff, deterioration in research facilities and infrastructure, not enough attention given to research and too few resources spent on it, financial privation of students and staff, budgetary constraints and student unrest.
In spite of these daunting problems, the continent has displayed tremendous accomplishment in the post-colonial period. African higher education expended from 6 institutions in 1960 to some 97 by 1992. Experts viewing developments in African higher education note that large numbers of African men and women have been trained at different levels of competence in various fields. The Africanisation of the civil service in most African countries has been accomplished. Key technical and managerial positions formerly held by expatriates are now occupied by Africans. Notable engineering projects such as the Volta Dam, Bunbani, Water Falls, the Tazara Railway (a Chinese project) and thousands of miles of highways have been successfully completed. Educational systems and health systems have also been expanded. Epidemics such as typhoid and smallpox have virtually been eliminated, though AIDS has reversed the increasing tempo of life expectancy.
There are developments that have impacted on African higher education as we enter the new millennium. These include the end of the cold war, globalisation, the information revolution and the liberation of South Africa.
Let us look at the last of these points, our liberation. For some members of the continent, the liberation of South Africa has given new life to the continent and has brought a sense of wholeness, completion and hope to Africa.
South Africa also has a relatively developed infrastructure, a sound economy and, in education, a higher education system of high quality. We have a gross higher education enrolment of 17%, with all other SADC countries registering under 10.
Furthermore, we have a total of 36 universities and technikons, with Zimbabwe (at 10) the closest to us among SADC countries. While it is necessary to acknowledge that South Africa in comparison to her neighbours is progressing well and would be of benefit to the region, one must point to the gains that South African will make out of academic collaboration with the Southern African region and the rest of Africa.
High on the list of gains is the opportunity to challenge the legacy of apartheid education in knowledge production and dissemination. The dislocation of South Africa from the African continent through the apartheid years and the dominance of predominantly western orientated paradigms in South African universities and technikons contributed to the isolation of South African higher education from African intellectual developments and contributions. Therefore, more than in the rest of Africa, the curricula and research programmes of South African higher education institutions are predominantly shaped by western thought. Little emphasis has been given to African scholarship or problem solving or to the promotion of indigenous knowledge systems. As a consequence, African scholars who are respected and renowned internationally and on the rest of the continent are often unheard of in South Africa, even by students of African Studies. There is thus clearly space for an interactive, reciprocal relationship among higher educational institutions on the continent. And we in South Africa will be a major beneficiary. At a more strategic level, particularly with reference to the global context, collaboration in Africa will be critical to the future of the continent. It will save Africa from becoming the "ghetto of the new global village" because of lagging scientific and technological capability. It will, in fact, turn a laggard into a serious competitor.
South Africa is moving in the right direction. In the years 1995-1997 alone, there were 25 097 students from other parts of Africa enrolled at South African universities and technikons, of whom 6 000 were postgraduate. There are numerous examples of research collaboration/staff exchanges between South African institutions and their counterparts in Africa (though we should see more of our university staff spending sabbaticals there, rather than North America or Europe). Academics from Africa and elsewhere are enriching our own institutions. Indeed, an institution in higher education without staff from abroad is not worth the name. These processes need to be encouraged and extended, Though there are problems, for instance with immigration regulations which are being addressed. Our Government policy is supportive of interchanges, e.g. for postgraduate students from Africa. They are treated as home students and receive the same Government subsidy. How, then, do we ensure that the continent is better able to take its place in the global community?
Our focus must clearly be to enhance Africa's capacity in the development of high level human resources and research, particularly in strategic areas that not only promote our global competitiveness but also contribute to the overall development of the continent.In our region, the SADC Education and Training Protocol paves the way for implementing this vision in higher education. We also have agreements that have been forged by African Ministers of Education through forums such as the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), UNESCO's Minedaf VII agreement and COMEDAF via the OAU. These too should be powerfully used by higher education institutions on the continent.
The challenge to South African higher education is to give substance to these agreements and to shift our institutions from a narrow vision of growth and development which has been primarily linked with north-south collaboration.
Instead, I ask that you look beyond this to the south and the ways in which we can revitalise Africa. At the same time, we need to draw on partnerships with the north to promote south-south linkages.
It is cliched but true to say that we live in one, every-shrinking world -- a world that holds vast opportunity but also vast danger for the economically weaker nations and institutions, a world where, for instance, powerful financial interests are able to turn education into profitable business, a world where the most important internationalisation that is going on concerns the rapid movement of capital. In all this, we have a responsibility to ensure that our own institutions are enriched, not weakened, in the process, and that we as a most promising democracy are able to play a meaningful collaborative role in the world we live in.