Universities urged to pursue their own research agendas

The time has come for African institutions of higher education to pursue Africa-focused research with real-life impact rather than follow research agendas set by foreign funders.

This was the view expressed by Professor James Gashumba, vice-chancellor of Rwanda Polytechnic, who said a lack of research by African institutions was a serious challenge that needed concerted efforts to be addressed.

Speaking on the final day of the fifth regional forum for the Partnership for Skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET) held in Kigali, Rwanda, Gashumba said: “It is a serious challenge that Africa still lags behind in research; most research that is carried out also has the challenge of being dictated by foreign researchers who partner with Africans, and if they don’t understand the topic, they will not support it.”

Political will

He said the time has come for Africa to stand up and do its own research which would require political will to invest in the sector and in closer partnerships with industry to ensure that more practical skills are acquired.

“There is a need for Africa to revolutionise the way courses are delivered in our universities (both technical and higher learning institutions); we need technology and innovations to drive our education and we need to carry out more applied research which addresses our own issues,” he said.

The PASET forum, which brought together experts from different fields including academia, focused on the fourth industrial revolution and its opportunities and risks for Africa.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s research report, Africa’s share of global research was 2.6% in 2014. This poor performance is the result of factors such as limited capacity and finance as African Union governments remain slow to deliver on their pledge to increase funding for research.

Funding

“The research in most of the African countries is quite low; the scientific output is low. Second, there is the issue of lack of sufficient funding,” said Moses Osiru, manager of the Regional Scholarship and Innovation Fund (RSIF), the PASET flagship programme aimed at increasing the number of African PhD holders.

“Africa has set a target for at least 1% of countries’ GDP to go to research in science and technology but at present this is not happening; very few countries are meeting this target,” he said.

Africa is also faced with the challenge of pursuing research that does not respond to the needs and priorities of the continent.

Osiru said many types of research projects are short-term, like three years, whereas what was needed were more long-term projects of up to 20 years or so which have greater impact.

He said Africa needed to think about differentiation of higher education.

“We need research-intensive universities that can focus on research,” he said.

Under RSIF, there was a signing of a memorandum of understanding with four institutions to increase the number of PhD holders. Partners include the Global Strategy Team at the Korea Institute of Energy Research, the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, the Institutes of Green BioScience and Technology at Seoul National University and the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University from Morocco.

Over 100 PhD students are set to enrol in various African universities in the next three years and the first cohort of 16, including three Rwandans, have already enrolled.