African Higher Education in the 21st Century: Blending Optimism with Reality

University education and its evolution in Africa has been closely linked with economic growth. The policy changes in the late 80’s driven by World Bank / International Monetary fund (IMF) policy and scarce resources resulted in a singular focus on initially primary education and subsquently secondary education that effectively delinked the university from development discourse. Since then enrollment in higher education has increased dramatically from 181,000 in 1975 to over 5.4 million in 2012 and offers opportunity for tapping a large youth workforce by orienting and skilling them for agriculturalled development. But lack of articulation of the opportunities that education offers for economic growth through science, technology and innovation has left the sector with inadequate investment and attention effectively missing a key stimulant for economic development. Instead expenditure per student has decreased dramatically by over 82% in Sub-Saharan Africa with negative effect on the education system, including low overall quality and relevance. Despite current challenges, African universities hold promise for achieving the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the sustainable development goals by overcoming current and emerging challenges. African governments must do more to link policy to best practice through available evidence and more impotantly to strengthen policy implementation. Many policy recommendations remain inadequately implemented. Higher education is at the cross roads and a stratified higher education system is needed which allows differentiation of universities that would ensure a strong contribution by universities to development goals and engages all stakeholders, particularly governments, students and potential employers to ensure relevant products. Greater investment will be required to rebuild Africa’s expanded higher education sector, that allows greater south-south collaboration and upholds quality and development relevance. This paper provides key trends and experiences from Africa’s higher education and highlights opportunities for harnessing higher education to deflect Africa’s economic trajectory.