The ‘infinite’ benefits of internationalisation

The world has become more interconnected because of globalisation and African universities need to find a way of taking advantage of efforts to globalise higher education in order to become relevant to the people they serve, according to the secretary general of the Association of African Universities or AAU, Etienne Ehouan Ehile.

Addressing the opening of the 7th conference of the African Network for Internationalisation of Education, or ANIE, held in Ghana’s capital Accra from 5-7 October, Ehile said: “The world today has become more interconnected and so has higher education… Internationalising exudes an infinite set of opportunities that we all need to take advantage of.”

ANIE is a non-profit, non-governmental African network committed to the advancement of high-quality research, capacity building, advocacy and information sharing on internationalisation of higher education, with a primary focus on Africa. The theme of this year’s conference was “Partnerships for knowledge generation and sustainable development”.

Ehile said: “In reflecting internationalisation in every aspect of our discourse, curriculum, research, students and staff body, as well as in all other areas of our work, we overcome our individual challenges and tap into a rich pool of expertise.”

Retaining relevance

Higher education institutions and universities across Africa will remain relevant and meet societal expectations “only by working synergistically among ourselves and with other key partners, including African governments, ministries of education, and development partners supporting the revitalisation of tertiary education in Africa”.

Ehile said he was confident that through deliberations and networking at the conference, partnerships would be strengthened for the benefit of African universities.

Africa’s development hinges on the quality of its higher education – its research, its graduates, university-industry linkages, the degree of community engagement and internationalisation, among other issues, he said.

He reminded universities of their individual and joint commitments to ensuring that the African Union achieves the aspirations enshrined in Agenda 2063, an initiative intended to use the continent’s experiences of the past, build on current progress, and see how resources could be harnessed to develop Africa within 50 years.

Continental frameworks

Accordingly, Ehile asked all stakeholders in the higher education chain to work with the various continental higher education frameworks and keep the Sustainable Development Goals in mind, as their achievements were tied intrinsically to the development of the continent as a whole.

“For our part, the AAU has been advocating through various fora for all higher educational institutions to contribute meaningfully towards implementation of these frameworks.

“Beyond these we have been implementing a wide range of quality programmes aimed towards creating the right environment for higher education institutions, supporting their core functions, and empowering our members with the requisite tools to aid them in their operations,” he added.

He listed the World Bank African Centers of Excellence project, the database of African theses and dissertations, the quality assurance project, leadership and management development programmes, staff exchanges and small grants for theses and dissertations, among several other high-profile projects aimed at meeting ANIE’s mandate of improving the quality of higher education on the African continent.

Partnerships as drivers

Chairman of the ANIE board, Professor Chika Sehoole, said this year’s conference focused on the role of partnerships in knowledge generation and sustainable development. “This is on the basis that partnerships are an inherent feature of universities; they are critical drivers for enhancing the realisation of institutional goals and impact on society,” he said.

“They support research capacity building and knowledge production, innovation, postgraduate education, infrastructure development, teaching and learning, graduate employment and industry competitiveness and growth,” Sehoole said.

Conferences were an important forum through which ANIE achieves its goal of creating opportunities for African scholars to deliberate on issues relating to the international dimension of higher education and how they manifest in African universities and contexts, he explained.