Enhancing future African scholarship

At the heart of any higher education institution lies scholarship, the highest level of academic study or achievement, with an implicit emphasis on quality in terms of research, teaching and practice. True scholars demonstrate behaviours that reflect a variety of attributes: integrity; inquisitiveness; reflectiveness; persistence; having the courage of one’s convictions; daring to be different; to some extent, taking risks; and entrepreneurship. The question here is how to develop, support and best enhance scholarship within challenging circumstances.

Scholarship in Africa has deep and ancient roots. These can be traced back to the Alexandria museum of 3 BC, with its great library, and to universities emerging from the 9th centuries in Morocco, Egypt and, later, Timbuktu. Universities were established on a larger scale from the 1800s.

The context within which universities in Africa have had to work post-independence or democracy, however, has been complex and challenging and this has been detrimental to scholarship. Africa is, in short, struggling against a lack of funds, an intellectual dependency syndrome, the erosion of academic freedom, predatory behaviour and activities on the part of journals, private conferences and donor agencies and a conspicuous absence of a clear sense of direction in higher education institutions and research institutes in Africa.

There is furthermore a lack of appropriate and effective research and teaching infrastructure and of access to books and periodicals that are needed to teach and to do research. The publishing industry is dominated by foreign companies, which do not necessarily share Africa’s priorities for education and scholarship. To add to these woes, indigenous book publishing projects are hampered by a lack of funds and an absence of commitment by African states to support viable publishing houses, as these are regarded as a “luxury to have”. Locally funded publishers therefore operate at a loss or on very thin profits. Finally, most universities in Africa find themselves unable to subscribe to journals published in the West, which is detrimental to scholarship amid the global demand for “publish or perish”. Scholars must stay current but circumstances in Africa do not provide conducive conditions for them to do so, on top of which scholars on the continent compete for publishing space in journals that are published outside of Africa.

The impact on the continent of all the above factors is visible in its indicators, which reveal that there are only 800 public universities and 6 million students ̶ 39% of whom are female ̶ in Africa. The graduate enrolment ratio is lower than that in the rest of the world, standing at only 30%. As for research, only an average of 0.4% of the GDP is spent on research and development and, not surprisingly, a mere 0.7% of the world’s scientific research is undertaken on the continent. This is reflected in the 1.1% of the world’s publications and 0.1% of global patents produced in Africa. And, although Africa has a substantial diaspora, two thirds of its sub-Saharan diaspora remains in the same region. South Africa, for example, is the biggest recipient of mobile African students (UNESCO, 2011 & 2017).

With this fairly gloomy outlook, a case is to be made for urgent intervention to promote and support existing scholars, whilst, simultaneously, developing a new group of young scholars to enter academia.

The Africa Centre for Scholarship has been established at Stellenbosch University to contribute to solutions on the African continent generally and to support scholars in Africa specifically. This is timely, as Stellenbosch’s overall enrolment figures have grown by 5%, whilst 33% of the student body consists of postgraduate students. In the next two years, research and scholarly programmes focusing on doctoral and postdoctoral candidates and fellows will be expanded, partnerships will be set up with other universities in Africa to establish Joint Schools that provide research training, a research programme focusing on internationalisation and global education will be launched, and digital and technological solutions for expanded access to learning opportunities on the African continent will be researched.

To date, the African Doctoral Academy (ADA), an initiative of the Africa Centre for Scholarship, has offered opportunities to about 3 000 participants in research and scholarship training, with the latest intake attracting about 300 participants to 18 workshops facilitated by scholars from Stellenbosch, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and the USA. Since 2009, the ADA has hosted 2 853 delegates from 53 countries attending 181 workshops.

A Joint School will be held at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, in May 2018. Facilitated by Prof Sarah Howie (Stellenbosch) and Prof David Owiny (Makerere), about 40 lecturers across various disciplines will be involved. This will be the first for 2018, with plans underway for Joint Schools to be held in another three other countries in Africa this year.