Should Africa de-internationalise to internationalise?

Africa might need to cast off the impact of external forces on its higher education system in order to properly internationalise, the “Going Global” conference heard last week. And universities need to participate more in international forums on higher education to highlight what they are doing.

Going Global

The curtains have just come down on the Going Global 2012 conference held in London from 13-15 March 2012 and attended by 1,500 participants from 80 countries.

The conference theme was “Changing Education for a Changing World”, in recognition of the fact that global transformations and realities are leading to new dynamics and changes in the world higher education system.

It also acknowledged the growing reality and impact of internationalisation on higher education sectors in all parts of the world. Experiences were shared on new trends and on how universities and related stakeholders could work together to respond. There were also attempts to project forward to how the scenario might look in the future.

The key message of the conference was that education has the ability to change the future of the world and shape the lives of its citizens. A bolder and better new world was possible through international cooperation in higher education.

Africa and internationalisation

But what does Africa want from internationalisation?

Goolam Mohamedbhai, former secretary general of the Association of African Universities and former vice-chancellor of the University of Mauritius, discussed the consequences of internationalisation for Africa and how universities could benefit from internationalisation.

There was recognition of the comparatively weaker position of Africa compared to other parts of the world and how the continent’s weaknesses had contributed to its attitudes to internationalisation.

However, internationalisation could enable the continent to strengthen its institutional capacities, including the quality and research capacities of African universities.

Maybe Africa needs to first de-internationalise to internationalise, said Hans de Wit, a key higher education thinker who is professor of internationalisation of higher education at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands.

He considered Africa to have possibly one of the most internationalised higher education sectors and one whose internationalisation agenda and priorities were not locally driven.

According to him, aspects such as funding, curriculum, policies and even the way universities are organised have been largely influenced by external drivers. Africa needs first to shed these or have a better understanding of them in order to develop a realistic response to internationalisation.

The session,“Re-thinking Internationalisation – Who benefits and who is at risk?", led by the International Association of Universities, focused on the evolving nature of internationalisation, variations in the meaning of the concept in different parts of the world and the evolving nature of factors shaping internationalisation.

Universities in different parts of the world were challenged to have a sense of global responsibility, especially when engaging with universities in developing countries.

There was also an emphasis on the now growing reality that internationalisation needs to pay heed to individual contexts and that no one size fits all.

The aims of internationalisation in different parts of the world also vary. For African institutions, for instance, internationalisation had to be approached in a strategic and coordinated way linked to Africa’s needs.

In what seemed like a response to Hans de Wit, the African Network for Internationalisation of Education, ANIE (of which I am director) presented a session that analysed the manifestations of internationalisation in Africa and prioritised key challenges and opportunities.

These revolved around the outcomes of the 3rd ANIE conference, which took place in Abuja, Nigeria, in November 2011. There, African university leaders identified research, producing a new generation of African academics and developing infrastructure for internationalisation as key areas that needed support in order to make a real impact on the internationalisation of higher education in Africa.

Professor Olusola Oyewole of the University of Agriculture in Abeokuta, Nigeria, led the discussions on new thinking around the internationalisation of higher education in Africa and ANIE's daunting role in promoting this across the continent.

African universities need to take a strategic approach to internationalisation and not to be preoccupied by issues that could distract them from their core responsibilities for the continent.

While Africa still faces a number of challenges, new developments in intra-African initiatives at continental, regional and institutional levels are vital and could lay the foundations for increased internationalisation within Africa and other parts of the world. Nigeria and Kenya were significantly represented at the conference.

Apart from discussion forums on Africa, African universities and higher education organisations need to step up their attendance at global forums to highlight developments in higher education on the continent and to take part in the kind of stimulating discussions that were evident at the Going Global conference.

* James Jowi is executive director of the African Network for Internationalisation of Education, ANIE.