Global north-south partnerships ignore less privileged

Higher education partnerships between the Global South and Global North established to address the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are failing to reach remote areas as they are often between major public universities and ignore less privileged private universities attended by the bulk of poorer students, especially in Africa, an international conference was told.

The new research investigating the role of international higher education partnerships in tackling the 17 SDGs was unveiled at an online event jointly hosted by the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and the British Council on 12 January 2022.

The findings stressed the need for equity in the design and benefits of collaboration between universities in the Global South and Global North, which still presents a challenge due to a lack of capacity in some southern partners.

The report for ACU and British Council gave the first insights into the study led by Adam Krcal, principal consultant at the Technopolis Group, which was supported by researchers at King’s College London last year.

SDGs are interlinked

Among the key messages was the need for higher education institutions to look beyond SDG4, which covers quality education through curriculum development, infrastructure investment and academic and student mobility, and the partnership goals of SDG17, and understand that the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are interlinked and that one cannot be achieved without the others.

Krcal told the online conference launching the report that choice of partners between universities in the Global South and North was important, with older partnerships likely to be more equitable than younger partnerships because the partners have had a longer period to establish trust in each other.

“Partners in the Global North were often seen as more credible with funders,” he said.

“Partners in the Global South often think they will stand a better chance if the proposal is led by a northern partner and that they don’t have the necessary [on the] ground management capacity required by funders. There needs to be more support from funders in capacity-building in the pre-application stage,” he said.

However, the report said that benefits derived from such partnerships were much better defined and documented for southern partners than northern partners, with key benefits including new curricula, innovations in pedagogy and training for academics, and that benefits often extended beyond the partnerships into the community.

Partnerships more likely with public universities

During a discussion at the online launch of the report, Dr Albert Luswata, director of the Institute of Ethics at Uganda Martyrs University, a faith-based private university owned by the Uganda Episcopal Conference of the Catholic Bishops, said that while progress had been made towards achieving the SDGs, the COVID-19 pandemic had “caused a bit of a loss of time” and he felt it was opportune to review the partnerships.

“Many of the partnerships already established in the context of Africa are often in giant universities – the public universities that have access to most resources.

“But then you realise that in Africa the people who access public universities tend to be those who come from privileged backgrounds. The majority of students go to private universities that don’t have the same resources.

“The remote smaller private universities don’t have the same chance to access these partnerships, which tend to look at grounded universities, so we need to move away from the already privileged universities to include the others where there are not so privileged students.”

The discussion was chaired by Professor Pamela Dube, deputy vice-chancellor for student development and support at University of the Western Cape, South Africa, and co-chair of ACU’s Higher Education and the SDGs Network.

UK government priorities

She asked Nikki Stoddart, head of scholarships, tertiary education and partnerships at the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), for the British government’s priorities in supporting international higher education partnerships.

Stoddart replied: “We believe investment in education partnerships can really benefit a sustainable future for all and help to build stronger economies and societies and raise living standards.

“It is also in the UK’s own national interests because it creates incredibly strong international partnerships which we can then take with us across all the work we do in the FCDO.”

Stoddart was one of several speakers flagging up the Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education Innovation and Reform (SPHEIR) programme as an example of an initiative between the UK and Global South that was proving to be a real benefit.

Launched in 2016, SPHEIR is a £45 million (US$62 million) FCDO fund to support higher education transformation in a number of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Middle East, with a focus on the quality, relevance, scale, access and affordability of higher education and helping to address challenges of employability.

Building resilience in Somaliland’s health system

One of the SPHEIR projects highlighted in the report and by Stoddart is Prepared for Practice, which is helping to build up the resilience of the health system in Somaliland and has managed to make progress despite the pandemic.

It is led by (King’s College London’s) King’s Global Health Partnerships (KGHP) in partnership with the Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET), MedicineAfrica, and three universities in Somaliland, Amoud University, University of Hargeisa and Edna Adan University.

The report says: “KGHP has three main responsibilities: managing the grant and leading the partnership in the delivery of the project outcomes and co-leading the delivery of the undergraduate and institutional workstreams with Somaliland universities.

“THET has three main roles on the project: to lead the policy workstream; provide in-country coordination support and lead programme operations in Somaliland.

“MedicineAfrica manages the project’s educational learning platform and the University of Hargeisa, Amoud University and Edna Adan University are the three main implementation sites of the project. They co-lead the delivery of the undergraduate and faculty workstreams at their universities and support the delivery of the policy and regulation workstream.”

SDGs need higher education contribution

Dr Joanna Newman, chief executive and secretary general of the ACU, told the online conference she was very proud of the report and said: “None of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals can be achieved without the contribution of higher education.

“This study provides valuable evidence of the benefits that international partnerships between universities deliver for individuals, communities and societies. In order to maximise these benefits, we need to maintain and grow sustainable and innovative funding environments for higher education, based on the principles of equitable partnerships.”

Maddalaine Ansell, director of education at the British Council, told the conference the recent period had been challenging and that “COVID-19 was unlikely to be the last global crisis we face”, but she emphasised that “successful international collaboration brings benefits to all partners”.

She said: “The partnership model itself adds significant value to investment from international donors and funders”, adding that “because of its strength in higher education and through convening organisations like the British Council and the ACU, the UK can be at the heart of partnerships committed to achieving the SDGs.”

Nic Mitchell is a UK-based freelance journalist and PR consultant specialising in European and international higher education. He blogs at www.delacourcommunications.com.