Envisioning the future of the African University: Needed reform, and adjustments to respond to the emerging challenges

Abstract

The paper shares the author’s perspective on the future of African higher education through
a university lens. It identifies global trends  regional agenda that will influence change
within the African university systems in the next decade. The paper is divided into  (8)
sections as follows: Section 1 introduces the background and purpose of the paper and its
organization. Section 2 reviews the historical developments that influenced the emergence
of the Multiversity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the western world, especially
the United States and Europe;  the implications for the reforms of university systems in
the twenty first century. Section 3 reflects on the current global trends affecting the university
governance,  driving change by reviewing a plethora of models of governance, especially
the Anglo-Saxon, Homboldtian, Napoleonic, and Japanese models. Section 4 describes the role
of university innovation and entrepreneurship in the fulfillment of the ‘third mission’ besides
university core business of teaching and research. Section 5 covers the integration of technology
in learning and transitioning of universities to Education 4.0 in order to serve the unfolding
Fourth Industrial Revolution. Section 6 highlights the role of academic rankings in measuring
success and fueling reputational competition; thus, leading to improvement in research output
and impact, and influencing strategic choices in higher education globally. Section 7 reflects
on the causes of stagnation of African higher education in comparison to BRICs’ explosive
expansion in the last two decades, and proposes strategies for closing the gap in terms of
graduate enrollment ratios and differentiation.