Meeting SDGs requires degree quality, but can Africa do this?

Earning a university degree is often considered a sound investment, but obtaining a higher quality degree is even more valuable – a target that has been elusive in many African universities.

That is the central theme of the book, Quality in African Higher Education: Development perspectives from selected regions, released by Brill Academic Publishers on 19 May 2025.

With a cast of 25 contributors drawn from Angola, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe, the book highlights the value of quality higher education and its relevance to capacity-building through strengthening tertiary institutions.

According to Professor Peter Neema-Abooki, the editor of the book and a research associate at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, the quest for quality higher education in Africa is not a new concept. It dates back to the success of constructing pyramids in Egypt when lofty standards in specifications and measurements were required.

Neema-Abooki said that, whereas the quality of education and skills enabled early Egyptians to construct iconic buildings with unique geometric shapes that have stood for millennia, it can be a catalyst for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa today.

“Higher education is the engine of development in the new world economy, and universities play critical roles in advancing knowledge and skills for development,” Neema-Abooki said.

Advancing the frontiers

In the chapter, ‘Sustainable development of quality higher education in Africa’, Neema-Abooki and Christopher Mukidi Acaali, the deputy vice-chancellor at Uganda Martyrs University, wrote that higher education should produce skilled workers who are to take leading roles in different spheres of development, including business and industrial growth.

The scholars pointed out that higher education should be responsible for training and producing scientists and researchers who can advance the frontiers of knowledge through innovative research. They urged African universities to focus on improving learning and teaching quality and improve the completion rate among students.

Describing development as a process of social and economic progress, Neema-Abooki said that, despite the abundance of resources, including rare minerals, Africa has become a ‘pariah’ continent with stunted growth where assets do not seem to benefit people.

Commenting on the issue, Professor Alois Chiromo, the executive director of quality assurance and professional development at Midlands State University in Zimbabwe, said that African countries seeking to transition to a knowledge economy and sustainable development must invest in providing quality education. “Africa needs scientists, researchers and educators who can contribute to the socio-economic development of their countries,” said Chiromo.

Triple helix model

In the chapter ‘A catalyst for the attainment of the sustainable development goals’, three Namibian academics – Professor Kenneth Kamwi Matengu, the vice-chancellor of the University of Namibia; Dr John Kamwi Nyambe, the associate dean of education at the same university; and Dr Ngepathimo Kadhila, the chief executive officer at the Namibian College of Open Learning, noted that the situation is worrying as few African universities are focusing on achieving the SDGs.

According to the three scholars, although higher education has been cited as a primary tool for Africa’s progress in terms of social environment and economic development, the types of activities and sectors in which universities may participate remain topics of research.

To address the issue, Matengu and his colleagues have suggested that African countries should adopt the triple helix model, which would bring government, universities and industry to work closely together to improve the quality of higher education and enhance participation in the SDGs.

The triple helix model of higher education governance is based on interactions between academia, industry, and government to promote innovation, entrepreneurship and economic growth in a knowledge-based economy. The model emphasises the partnership in driving technological advancements and societal progress.

New teaching approaches

However, in the chapter ‘Fostering transformative pedagogy in African higher education’, Kadhila and Matengu in collaboration with Dr Nangula Iipumbu, the quality assurance coordinator at the University of Namibia, argued that, to improve the quality of African higher education, universities must adopt new teaching approaches that encourage students to engage in critical thinking, self-reflection, and making positive personal choices.

They stated that, in most African universities, teaching methods are outdated as they are merely informative, aimed at transmitting knowledge from lecturer to passive student. “Emphasis is on rote learning, and a lecturer’s worth is determined by the ability to provide information in a specific field of expertise.”

In this context, the three academics believe that African higher education has declined mainly because it has relied on traditional teaching approaches that focus on mechanical instruction, stereotypical learning strategies, memorisation, and teacher-dominated methodologies.

They advised African higher education institutions to discard traditional teaching methods, as they are not adding value to the achievement of the SDGs or the attainment of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 aspirations.

Kadhila and his associates urged African higher education institutions to adopt transformative pedagogy, an educational learning theory developed by the late American sociologist Jack Mezirow (1923-2014) at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City in the US. The theory is based on the notion that learning should be student-centred, collaborative, experiential, and problem-solving.

The team pointed out that such an approach to teaching would not only help students develop critical thinking, but also enable them to become goal-setters in their future careers.

HE institutions’ failures

However, Ambrose Kessy, an associate professor of political science at the University of Dodoma in Tanzania, believes most African educational institutions have failed to provide students with a relevant education that would meet the SDGs.

In a study on the labour market and university-industry cooperation, Kessy noted that graduate underemployment, unemployment, and a lack of qualified personnel in various fields have become issues of concern in Africa. Citing the Tanzanian experience, Kessy pointed out that there is no link between tertiary training institutions and the respective labour markets for graduates although it is essential to enhance the capacity to apply knowledge effectively.

He stressed that matching employment opportunities with the outcomes of the higher education training system is a challenge in many African countries. He noted that, although a lack of skills fuels graduate unemployment in Africa, unsuitable fields of study, a wrong perception of employment, and insufficient experience in the required job also contribute to the problem.

“That means that graduate employability is related to an individual’s qualities, the employer, job environment, and what is provided by higher learning institutions,” Kessy said.

To Kessy, there are indicators that graduate unemployment is on the rise in Africa, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. He attributed the situation to growing university enrolment, while strategies to improve graduate employability have not been working efficiently.

For instance, he noted that graduate unemployment in Nigeria exceeds 30% and strategies to reduce it have been unsuccessful. Quoting Alarudeen Aminu, an associate professor of economics at the University of Ibadan, Kessy explained that the skills of many graduates in Nigeria do not appear to be in demand in either the labour market or the economy.

Unfavourable labour-market conditions

This is also the case in Kenya, where the government has experience in designing and implementing policies on graduate and non-graduate employment. However, the country’s unemployment level remains high. Kessy noted that Kenya’s unemployment rate stands at approximately 40%, which is the highest in East Africa.

Kessy pointed out that, in many cases across the continent, universities and their graduates are not equally to blame for the prevailing high unemployment situation as, too often, graduates encounter unfavourable labour-market conditions.

In his analysis of how education is expected to impact the SDGs, Kessy suggests that society needs to re-evaluate the idea that the more education one has, the easier it is to secure an attractive job. He argued that African countries should revisit their approach and rethink the type of higher education they require to meet the SDGs and the aspirations of Agenda 2063.

Kessy recommended that African tertiary institutions should respond by inventing and implementing new modes of learning and teaching. He also suggested that countries should establish observatory systems to collect, generate, and disseminate data regularly on labour-market outcomes, involving trainers, students, and employers.

Additionally, Kessy suggested that governments should expand research financing by assisting tertiary institutions and industry in engaging in joint research initiatives and collaborations on curricular reforms, practical skills training, and the provision of necessary infrastructure.