Building a critical mass of faculty to enhance Africa’s diversity and competitiveness: opportunities and needed actions

Abstract

The higher education sector in Africa has over the past three decades experienced a significant
level of both development and turbulence. Due to the unprecedented growth in enrolment
and the number of institutions, universities compete for staff to run academic programmes.
This does not only limit the potential to run quality graduate and research programs, but is
a hindrance to differentiation and diversity of programmes offered at national and regional
levels. Governments have to invest if they are to match the national ST&I requirements.
Mechanisms to leverage funding for post graduate supervision, and to fund full-time masters
and doctoral scholarships will be an incentive to dramatically increase the number and quality
of PhD students and thus the building blocks for academic staff in African universities and the
potential for enhanced competitiveness.