Beyond Reforms: The Politics of Higher Education Transformation in Africa

In “Beyond Reforms: The Politics of Higher Education Transformation in Africa” a new essay in African Studies Review, Tade Akin Aina examines higher education in Africa which, in spite of over a half century of interventions and waves of “reforms,” consists of institutions, systems, and practices that lack distinct values and goals, or a mission and vision connecting them to the major challenges of their local and global contexts.

What is needed in African higher education, argues Aina, Program Director, Higher Education and Libraries in Africa at Carnegie Corporation of New York, is true transformation, which will involve practical and epistemological ruptures with previous ways of doing things and a reconstruction of structures, relations, cultures, and institutions. Of particular importance are initiatives that will ensure gender equity, changes in the organization and process of knowledge production, and a reenvisioning of universities’ funding sources and mechanisms.

The views expressed in the essay are Tade Aina's, and do not necessarily reflect those of Carnegie Corporation of New York.