A new book, Knowledge Production and Contradictory Functions in African Higher Education, will be launched at the African Higher Education Summit being held in Senegal's capital Dakar next week. It is the latest publication of HERANA – the Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network in Africa – which for the past seven years has been investigating higher education in eight African countries. This special report highlights key findings arising from the research, which is led by the Centre for Higher Education Transformation and funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. University World News is a media partner to both HERANA and the Dakar summit.