Student mobility: Convention enables sharing of talent

African countries have agreed on a roadmap to strengthen higher education on the continent by implementing the Addis Recognition Convention, which has established a legal framework for assessing higher education qualifications in Africa.

The Revised Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Certificates, Diplomas, Degrees and Other Academic Qualifications in Higher Education in African States, known as the Addis Recognition Convention, was adopted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2014 and it came into force in December, 2019.

In a first meeting since December 2019, signatories gathered in Lomé, Togo, to come up with an implementation plan for the next two years. Regional bodies have noted the development and are expected to engage with the convention’s implications.

Dr Nico Jooste, the senior director of the African Centre for Higher Education Internationalisation, and Southern African Regional Universities Association (SARUA) strategic adviser, said members would discuss the issue later this year.

“This is a complicated matter and has not been debated in detail among the member universities of SARUA,” he said.

The revised convention is to be implemented in complementarity with the Global Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education, which aims improve recognition, mobility and inter-university cooperation between regions.

In this regard, the Lomé gathering stated that a network of implementation structures will be a priority. Similar implementation networks already exist in other contexts such as in Europe and Asia and the Pacific, facilitating the exchange of information and qualifications between countries and promoting mutual understanding and quality enhancement, according to a statement issued after the meeting.

In addition to these implementation structures, the monitoring of implementation progress at national level and at regular intervals was also mooted, according to the statement.

Professor Wondwosen Tamrat, an associate professor and founding president of St Mary’s University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, said the convention embodies practical responses to current realities and future needs that the continental higher education system should provide. These are relevant to student talent mobility and the recognition of qualifications.

“The Addis Convention is a very useful mechanism for encouraging mobility and recognition of qualifications set by individual countries across the continent,” he said.

“It can create better schemes for aligning the continental education system, student mobility and sharing human talent within the continent and from the diaspora.

“It encourages joint training and research programmes and assists in integrating efforts toward improving the quality and standard of the continental education system in addition to promoting mutual understanding and quality enhancement at global level and-or regions where better achievements are recorded in this regard.

“Apart from helping save scarce human, material and financial resources, this will have a significant implication for a continent whose students are a part of the global student mobility scheme and where national quality assurance schemes and qualification frameworks are least developed or at their infant stage,” said Tamrat.

The mobility of students on the continent confirms the potential benefits of the convention.

In 2017, about 15 million students were enrolled in African universities, a figure which represents less than 10% of the worldwide total of 220 million. This number has almost doubled in the past 15 years and is set to double again by 2030.

Mobility is also on the rise, with close to half a million African students going abroad to study.

Implementation challenges

The countries represented at the meeting, late in December, also agreed to strengthen cooperation with other UNESCO regional bureaus as well as establish working groups on quality, national qualifications and mobility frameworks.

Representatives also agreed to pay particular attention to the creation and empowerment of quality assurance mechanisms, which are lacking in some countries, as well as to establish appropriate procedures and tools to facilitate recognition for refugees and internally displaced persons.

In addition, countries at the meeting also agreed that all member states from UNESCO’s Africa Region (including through various networks within the African continent) should ratify the Addis Convention as well as the Global Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education.

At present, the ratification remains a challenge.

What should happen next?

Tamrat, who is also a collaborating scholar of the programme for Research on Private Higher Education at the State University of New York at Albany, United States, and coordinator of the private higher education sub-cluster of the Continental Education Strategy for Africa, believes the convention’s success depends on how and to what extent countries will live up to its goals.

“Africa, including its higher education sector, has had useful and promising conventions of this kind in the past but, quite often, their implementation has been marred by factors such as lack of political will, inadequate resources, lack of ownership and means of accountability,” he said.

“It can be seen that, despite its importance, the Addis Convention has taken more than five years to go into force and only around 13 countries appear to have ratified it.

“Although the implementation is wisely planned to take place in a phased manner, it is the commitment of individual countries and their readiness to respond to the envisaged goals which is critical to the overall success of the convention.

“Given past deficiencies in implementation, more needs to be done in strengthening public awareness about the convention, drawing more countries on board, creating a sense of ownership and undertaking proper follow-up and monitoring at all levels, which are key ingredients to success,” he said.

According to Tamrat, the implementation of the convention requires understanding its wider benefits.

“The benefits of the convention are immense and accrue to all parties, including national entities, sub-regions, and the continent at large, which has chosen higher education as a critical tool for economic development and poverty reduction.

“It is also beneficial for individual students, and Africa’s talent, who would like to give back to the continent, a critical sector that can bring meaningful change to the lives of people and the growth of the continent.

“But this can happen only if the convention is implemented properly and in a timely manner,” he added.