The Role of Higher Education in the Democratization of African politics

Finally, it is out: HERANA's capststone publication on work done over five years on the contribution of higher education to democracy in Africa.

The great disappointment since the first study by Mattes and Mughogho: higher education's contribution to increasing support for democracy as a political system is minimal; the big contributions of education are made at lower levels of the educational system. Literacy, the ability to read and process news, is crucial; higher education in Africa, in contrast, only marginally increases support for democracy among citizens in Africa and, as the student surveys of HERANA showed, even among the general student body or student leaders at key African flagship universities (i.e. University of Botswana, University of Cape Town, University of Dar es Salaam and University of Nairobi).

However, as the three HERANA studies, on which the article  is based, clearly show, higher education makes major contributions in terms of critical thinking skills, participation in civil society at an early age, and being able to navigate, lead, and consolidate complex institutions, among others. The full article is available here.

The current round of HERANA studies now takes a much more differentiated look at higher education and citizenship: on the one hand, specific activities that students engage in - in and out of classroom, on and off campus - are investigated, as well as specific characteristics of democratic citizenship are measured. Now the big question is... will the funders come to the party!