AFRICA

Nurturing a brighter spirit of internationalisation
Despite a growing quest for internationalisation around the world, the concept is at the same time being challenged by new global socio-political developments such as nationalism, 'Trumpism' and Brexit.Offering an opportunity for higher education stakeholders in the Global South to reflect on these developments and the future of internationalisation, the second Higher Education Forum for Africa, Asia and Latin America (HEFAALA) symposium was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 25-27 July.
Launched by the International Network for Higher Education in Africa (INHEA) in 2016, HEFAALA was established to navigate emerging and complex continental and global developments in higher education, interrogate the discourses and perspectives, and analyse and synthesise their implications on and significance to the Global South, according to Professor Damtew Teferra, INHEA founding director and conference director .
In his opening address, Teferra said while the partnerships on the economic and business fronts between Africa and these two other “Southern” continents are growing in leaps and bounds, the one on the education (especially higher education) front so far remains largely at the margins.
“While HEFAALA was established to enhance communication, research, dialogue and higher education partnerships between the South-South, or the peripheries (and what Philip Altbach calls the giant peripheries), it also strives to engage the key players in what is called the ‘centres’, with like-minded institutions in what typically are described as South-South-North partnerships.”
This year’s iteration of the symposium under a theme “Internationalisation of Higher Education in the New Era of World (Dis)Order”, drew about 250 higher education stakeholders from over 35 countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia, USA and Europe. It was jointly organised with St Mary’s University, which held its 17th Annual International Conference on Private Higher Education in Africa immediately prior to the HEFAALA event.
(Dis)Order
Teferra told delegates the symposium was being held at a time when the world was grappling with disruptive technologies: artificial intelligence, the fourth industrial revolution, social media, genetic engineering, superbugs, food security, climate change, global warming, unilateralism, nationalism, "…Literally the list is endless, hence the choice of 'Dis(order)' in the title of this symposium.”
He said increasing unilateralism was “edging out” multilateral principles and accords such as the Paris Climate Accord and the North American Free Trade Agreement, and had brought about political upheavals in the form of the Brexit “tragi-comedy”.
“These phenomena are increasingly emasculating the core principles governing globalisation, leaving many wondering if its key principles – such as the movement of people, finance and capital — will remain intact or remain relevant to the world today and the future,” he said.
“While globalisation has been a subject of perennial criticism in the Global South, that critique has increasingly received growing and vocal allies in the Global North in a way unimagined by its architects as it has left many deprived and disenfranchised in that part of the world too, dismantling what Van de Werde (2017) calls the “Elite Cosmopolitan Project”.
Teferra said internationalisation had suffered from the fallout encouraged by powerful voices such as US President Donald Trump (“There is no global flag, no global currency, no global citizenship,” 2017) and former UK prime minister Theresa May (“If you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere,” 2016). This had resulted in a paradigm shift with consequences for student mobility, academic exchange, partnership schemes and resource mobilisation.
Brighter spirit of internationalisation
However, while the spirit of internationalisation was diminishing in one part of the world, it was brightening up elsewhere, said Teferra.
“For instance, China now hosts more African students than anywhere in the world. The same is true for some Asian countries as well. While the Chinese Confucius Institute is treated with some suspicion in the Global North, it is thriving in the Global South, where in some countries such as Zimbabwe, Chinese language has become mandatory in universities.
“These new phenomena of internationalisation … are bound to expand even more as China, India and others are vigorously pushing to build globally competitive higher education institutions, and they are also pursuing more economic and financial ties, with the resultant effects of more partnerships and interactions between those in the Global South.”
Interviewed at the close of the symposium, Teferra told University World News that internationalisation was important for African higher education for a number of reasons.
“A big chunk of African research grants is generated overseas, and increasingly this has become a terrain of both considerable competition and cooperation. Furthermore, increasingly, major research undertakings take place through institutional cooperation, and institutions without some standing will find it difficult to be a partner-cooperating institution, let alone a competing one.”
He said given the increasing number of African students travelling to study around the world and increasingly to the Global South – predominantly to China and also India – it was imperative to understand the implications of the new global mobility dynamics on the continent’s higher education systems and on national development in general.
“As the African economy is steadily growing … so is the interest in the provision of higher education (multiple services including of course, teaching). One could add the accreditation and quality perspectives into this mix,” he said.
Ethiopian input
Opening the symposium, Ethiopian Minister of Science and Higher Education Professor Hirut Woldemariam underlined the importance of the international event at a time when her new ministry was working on multiple policies and programmes to advance science and higher education in Ethiopia – a sector which has seen phenomenal growth.
She singled out the task of differentiating the higher education institutions as well as curriculum review which are being considered in the country now. The task of consolidating while expanding the higher education sector continues to be, she noted, a challenge, and she affirmed the need for public-private partnership in achieving these contesting missions.
Woldemariam acknowledged the role of Teferra in the creation of her new ministry. Teferra has been pushing for an independent ministry for higher education for over a decade and now serves as the chair of chairs and co-chairs of the working groups of the ministry’s advisory council.
She also recognised St Mary’s University for its role in co-organising the symposium and hosting its 17th annual conference. St Mary’s University is to be the site of INHEA’s new regional hub aimed at advancing policy advice, teaching, research, publication and outreach in matters related to higher education.
In his welcome address, St Mary’s Vice-Chancellor Associate Professor Wondwosen Tamrat said St Mary’s had initiated the conference 17 years ago not to market the profile of the institution but to “create a forum for a rigorous and robust dialogue for such entities in the newly emerging Ethiopian higher education sector which continues to be towered by a publicly dominated system".
“While knowledge of this subsector still remains meagre, we feel that our work over the last decade and a half has added more knowledge about private higher education institutions which are significantly contributing to expanding access to higher education in the country and beyond,” he said.
According to Tamrat, St Mary’s is at an initial stage of launching its first postgraduate programme in higher education studies and has applied for accreditation of a masters in higher education studies with the country's quality authority, the Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency.
“We hope that this initiative will contribute in bridging the existing void in the area of higher education studies at a continental level,” said Teferra.
Teferra said there was enthusiasm for the idea of a regular HEFAALA meeting. “We will capitalise on this energy to ensure that the forum emerges as one of the key fora for a serious conversation on higher education in Africa, Asia and Latin America,” he said.