AHELO: the myth of measurement and comparability - University World News

AHELO: the myth of measurement and comparability - University World News

A voice of reason: let's forget about AHELO and focus on improving teaching and learning at the chalk face. Phil Altbach in Universityworldnews.

Philip Altbach, Renowned International Higher Education Scholar, writes Preface to African Student Representation book

This is what Alma Maldonoado-Maldonado and Roberta Malee Bassett say about Prof Philip Altbach in the festschrift in his honour The Forefront of International Higher Education (2014): 

"Quantitatively, he has authored and coauthored 21 books, edited and coedited 23 books, written 16 book chapters, and published more than  50 articles. He has written 92 articles in his influential newsletter International Higher Education and 32 blog posts in The World View,  and his works have been translated into more than a dozen languages. Finally, he has served as an editor of eight (8) journals and book series. But, discussing Phil's career quantitatively misses the real essence of Phil's contribution to the field of international higher education. Qualitatively, Phil's reach in this field is almost unparalleled. We believe it is fair to say that in his 47 years in this field, Philip Altbach has been everywhere in the world of international and comparative education and higher education, and no scholar or practitioner in this field has been untouched by his contributions"(p. 2).  

The festschrift covers a huge amount of ground of Phil's work: on the internationalization of higher education; academic mobility; regional perspectives and worldwide perspectives; and world-class universities. But there is one aspect of his huge contribution which is left uncovered in the festschrift: Philip Altbach's seminal contribution to our understanding of student politics and student activism in particular. 

It is my great honour to contribute a chapter on Philip Altbach's contribution to a theoretical understanding of student activism in the 20th century to a forthcoming book published by the Council of Europe.

It is an even greater honour that Philip Altbach has written a Preface to the forthcoming book Student Representation in Higher Education Governance in Africa which I co-edit with Manja Klemencic and James Otieno Jowi. As Manja wrote to Phil upon receipt of his Preface:

"Your writing never fails to impress. This preface is perfect; not a word to be changed as far as I am concerned. Thank you so much!"

Kofi Annan's Keynote at the Africa HE Summit 2015: Higher Education and Africa’s Social and Political Progress

Keynote podcast:

http://livestream.com/WorldBankAfrica/HigherEducationSummit/videos/79849399

KA Remarks at the Summit: Revitalizing higher education for Africa’s Future.  

March 10-12, Dakar

Thank you ladies and gentlemen for your kind welcome.

It is a pleasure to join you for these important discussions; as Mr. Gregorian indicated in his message, I have long been a believer in the transformative power of education.

As Nelson Mandela used to say, “education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.”

Education is one of the most effective forms of peacebuilding, a source of hope for each individual, and the premise of development and progress in every society. This makes our discussions all the more relevant and timely for Africa’s potential for progress has rarely been higher.

In recent years, Africa’s impressive economic growth has seen foreign investment and business flock to the continent, where an expanding middle class and a young, entrepreneurial population is helping to propel growth.

But as the commodities “super-cycle” that has afforded Africa close to fifteen years of strong economic growth comes to an end, we will have to rely more on our human resources than on our natural resources. The good news is that they are just as plentiful. 

Yet we cannot truly realise Africa’s potential, nor overcome its serious challenges, without increasing access to, improving the quality and diversity of skills taught, and deepening the research capacity of Africa’s higher education.

I serve as the Chancellor of the University of Ghana, and therefore see at first hand the scope and complexity of this challenge. I know too, that what works in Accra may not work in Cape Town, Nairobi, or indeed Dakar.

So I hesitate to be overly prescriptive in my remarks today.

Rather, I would like to identify three broad priorities which I believe should guide the revitalization of African higher education.

First, we must harness the power of partnerships. The diversity of the audience today suggests that I may be preaching to the choir. 

Nonetheless, allow to me highlight some specific benefits of effective partnerships between African universities, with governments and the private sector, and with universities and research institutions across the world.

Attention has long focused on achieving universal primary education, and to a lesser degree, on improving secondary enrollment. With youth illiteracy still at around 50%, and even higher for girls, we all agree this continues to be vital. 

But the time has come to also revitalize higher education in Africa. This will necessitate strategic alliances with, and investment from, international partners and donors. 

Partnerships with the private sector can overcome the mismatch between the needs of African employers and the skills of its young graduates. Otherwise, university degrees will not secure the jobs graduates expect, and that is a recipe for social and political, as well as economic trouble.

Africa is full of unemployed university graduates, even as our economies have grown by more than 5% for over a decade. Clearly they were not given the skills that our economies need.

One of the problems is that university courses were traditionally designed to train academics, civil servants and employees in the formal economy, whilst our countries have been shedding civil service jobs and our econonomies remain largely informal. 

Our institutions of higher learning have to reflect these changes and teach the technical and entrepreneurial skills needed to succeed in the real world. 

As you may know, Switzerland has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world despite having a smaller proportion of university graduates than other developed countries. 

That is largely because Swiss tertiary education focuses more on high-level vocational schools in hotel management, engineering, IT, health and agriculture whose graduates are immediately employable.

This is a model other European countries are looking at now to address their own unemployment problems. Perhaps Africa should also consider its relevance. 

The shortage of funding is also hampering attempts by individual universities or research institutions to become globally recognized leaders in their field. 

However, through cooperation between African governments and universities, the continent can build regional centers of excellence that improve both the quality of research and education, and their impact throughout Africa. 

Many of the continent’s brightest young prospects feel they must leave Africa to further their studies, to publish or be mentored, and to develop personal expertise.

Reversing this tide is, I know, a significant concern for all of us here today. But we must also recognize, and take advantage of, the opportunities it presents in the short-term.

Closer ties with the universities and institutions abroad can increase capacity in African universities, and widen access to education in Africa and abroad. 

Africa has exported some of its brightest minds, as both professors and students. They can tomorrow benefit Africa as much as they benefit their host countries today.

To take advantage of these opportunities, the University of Ghana and University of Sussex recently agreed to collaborate on joint teaching and research programs, facilitate student and staff exchanges, and jointly train and develop doctoral students.

This is an approach many universities on the continent are developing, which I think could allow us to develop world class research-intensive universities, to generate the knowledge both governments and businesses need to succeed in Africa and globally.

My second priority is to improve the scope and quality of data from and on Africa.

This may seem like an obscure technical issue. However, evidence-based research is fundamental to sound policy-making. This research ought to be generated by Africa’s own institutions of higher learning and its burgeoning home-grown think tanks.

To grasp the importance of statistics for effective government it is useful to remember that the very word – statistics – comes from the German word for the state – der Staat. Governing without data is like driving without a dash board. 

Let me offer two personal examples to underline this need. When the Africa Progress Panel, which I chair, decided to study the impact of climate change on African agriculture for its 2015 Report, we had to turn to think tanks, development agencies, researchers and universities based mainly in Europe and North America.  

In a similar vein, the response to the Ebola outbreak revealed the lack of attention and resources dedicated to understanding potentially pandemic viruses in Africa, and how this significantly hampered our response. 

There is a very clear need for more, and improved, empirical understanding of how such challenges affect the continent and how its leaders can best react

I have no doubt that such targeted and applied research can have a wide impact, from better governance, to increased productivity and more jobs for our youth.  

Third and finally, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to highlight a less tangible, but profound, manner in which universities and institutions of higher learning can significantly impact Africa’s development. 

As important as the skills conferred or the knowledge generated at an institution of learning are, it is the outlook and attitude that higher education fosters in its students which is vital to national development and self-confidence.   

The demonstrations of angry young men and women across the continent reveal the frustration of our youth with the status-quo, and their willingness to assume the responsibilities of leadership. But it is clear too, that they are not always well  prepared

No one is born a good citizen or a good democrat or a good leader; it takes time and education. 

Our institutions should instill in Africa’s young citizens a mindset and understanding of the world that inspires visionary and positive citizenship and leadership.   

They must therefore be melting-pots of diversity and incubators of pluralism which produce responsible citizens. 

They can build bridges between communities of young people in Africa, eroding the ethnic and religious divides that still plague the continent.

And perhaps most importantly, they can promote the informed and peaceful confrontation of ideas, crucial to academic study and research, but also to deepening democratic governance, and building peace. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I have long maintained that healthy and sustainable societies are built on three pillars; peace and security, sustainable development, and respect for Human Rights and the rule of law. 

There can be no long-term security without development, no long term development with security, and no society can long remain prosperous without respect for human rights and the rule of law.  

But a well- educated, informed and engaged citizenry is the foundation on which these three pillars rest.  

I hope you agree that these principles can further strengthen that foundation. 

But I am sure too, that this expert audience will contribute many interesting and insightful ideas. 

I look forward therefore to the outcome of your discussions, and to seeing your vision of a revitalised higher education system that can drive Africa’s progress in the 21st century. 

De Wit replaces Altbach at Boston College centre - University World News

Hans de Wit is replacing the retired Philip Altbach as the head of CIHE at Boston College.

Nothing against the choice of de Wit, but personally, I would have liked to see a woman to take Philip's place and perhaps a younger candidate. I hope de Wit will continue Altbach's great leadership of research into international HE that spanned from Africa to Asia, Latin America, North America to Europe.



De Wit replaces Altbach at Boston College centre - University World News

Student unrest on the wane thanks to democratisation - University World News

Student unrest on the wane thanks to democratisation - University World News

Wow. It's always great to see when academic work becomes public scholarship! My paper in Studies in Higher Education with Taabo Mugume has clearly made an impact for this insightful article about student activism in University World News.

African HE Summit - African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) launched

At the HE Summit in Dakar last week, eight major universities on the continent lauched the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA). See the following press release.

The founding universities currently in the African Research Universities Alliance include: University of Lagos, Nigeria; University of Ibadan, Nigeria; Obafemi Awolowo University lle-Ife, Nigeria; University of Ghana Legon*; University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania*; University of Nairobi, Kenya*; University of Cape Town, South Africa*; University of Witwatersrand, South Africa; National University of Rwanda; University Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegal; Makerere University, Uganda*; University of Stellenbosch, South Africa; University of Pretoria, South Africa; and Rhodes University, South Africa. * denotes universities in the HERANA group.

Chapter now open access: Student Engagement & Citizenship Competences (2015)

After the launch of the book Knowledge Production and Contradictory Functions in African Higher Education at the 2015 Higher Education Summit in Dakar last week, my chapter in the book is now available for open access download from my academic.edu website under this link  as well as from the website of the publisher African Minds under this link where also all other chapters of the book can be downloaded.

This book is the culmination of several years of research work of the Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network (HERANA) in collaboration with key research universities in Africa. In this respect, it is essential reading to accompany the just recently launched African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) at the Summit. 

African Higher Education Summit - Podcast of Keynotes

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The African HE Summit 2015 started with a Keynote by former UN Secretary General Prof. Kofi Annan. The Panel including Prof Nico Cloete of CHET highlights key issues going forward for African higher education including access, equity, diversity, quality, governance, private higher education, financing and knowledge production, especially the need for specialisation and differentiation.
The podcast have been published on the CHET site.
http://chet.org.za/news/chet-focusing-debate-need-research-universities-africa

African Higher Education Summit 2015 - Blog 1 - African Minds presence

African Higher Education Summit 2015, Dakar, Senegal

I'm feeling very proud to be associated with African Minds, CHET and JSAA which has a fantastic presence at the Summit. My own work is featured in the Special Summit Issue of UWN with the article "Re-thinking Student Engagement's Role in Democratisation"
which is a 'teaser' from my chapter in the book "Knowledge Production & Contradictory Functions in African Higher Education" edited by Nico Cloete, Peter Maassen and Tracy Bailey. The book is available for free in its e-copy. It is launched at the Summit. In addition, African Minds publisher is also taking the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa  to the Summit to show the work we do in that sector ( - I am a member of the Editorial Exec and the journal manager - ) and the forthcoming book "Student Representation in Higher Education Governance in Africa" is also prominently advertised at the summit (see blog post of August 2014).

Transforming higher education through community engagement - University World News

Transforming higher education through community engagement - University World News



Later this year I will be publishing an interesting chapter on Community - University Research Partnerships in a book edited by Rajesh Tandon.

Journal of Student Affairs in Africa

The Journal of Student Affairs in Africa has become quite a success, wow. Now this is the fourth issue (Vol. 2 Issue 2) and as a resource to higher ed professionals, academics and students in the African context and beyond, it's a great resource.



This special issue provides what is perhaps the best  - - most concise, most accessible, and most contextually relevant - - introduction to the work of Vincent Tinto. Tinto is one of the great theorists in Student Affairs, having contributed immensely to our understanding of the impact of the university environment, institutional culture, etc. on student 'drop-out', student retention and ultimately student success.



JSAA is an open access, scholarly journal published by African Minds. This issue is edited by Prof Teboho Moja (NYU), Dr Birgit Schreiber (UWC), and yours truly.

Preview of the HERANA Book: Soon to be published!

Extract of draft chapter 9, forthcoming in:Cloete N, Maassen P & Bailey T (2015). Contradictory Functions, Knowledge Production and Pacts in African Higher Education (AHED Series: No. 1). Cape Town & Maputo: African Minds.

Chapter 9: Student Engagement and Citizenship CompetencesA Framework for Enhancing the Contribution of African Universities to Development

Thierry M Luescher-Mamashela[1], Vincent Ssembatya[2], Edwina Brooks[3], Randall S Lange[4], Taabo Mugume[5], Samantha Richmond[6]

 The roles of higher education in a democratising society

Taking Castells’ notion of development as a starting point, it is possible to appreciate the critical roles that universities play in the development of citizenship and democratic leadership in Africa. According to Castells, development as “the self-defined process […] by which humans, as a collective, enhance their wellbeing by creating the structural conditions for the expanded reproduction of the process of development itself” (Castells 2014: 3) involves a normative dimension that includes desirable values like “human rights, animal rights, equality, gender, empowerment and gender equality, solidarity, and the ability to live in a multicultural world [...], peace and democracy ...[which] includes and presupposes all other business of development (Castells 2014: 6). From a holistic perspective, the pursuit of social and economic development is necessarily linked to human development and both are intrinsically linked to the ability of the state which as the key collective agency of development is charged with creating the required structural conditions for development by means of different state initiatives and policies. The level of Africa’s socio-economic development today must thus be understood as a function of the historical and current weakness of its states to act as development agency for the collective (Castells 2014: 16). Thus, political underdevelopment remains a key structural constraint undermining all other efforts at development. While there are, of course, variations between countries as to the extent to which African states are weak, corrupt, inefficient or even predatory (Castells 2014: 16), what is important is to realise the interconnection between different elements of development and the primacy of politics. As Ghana’s first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, famously argued: “Seek ye first the political kingdom and all things shall be added unto you” (in Mazrui 2001: 128).

Over the course of history, universities have played various functions in their contribution to political, social and economic development. While not all universities fulfil all functions, and individual universities combine and recombine them differently over their history, the university system of a country has to combine somehow all of them. The functions have historically been additive; especially flagship institutions are expected to play multiple roles, which all involve elements of political socialisation. The first role is that as ideological apparatuses and producers of values and social legitimation. Then, especially flagship and elite universities have always played a key role in the selection of elites; in their socialisation and the formation of networks for their social cohesion. Universities play the crucial role of training high-skilled people, which includes the highly skilled labour force to run the complex institutions of modern society, including institutions of modern democracy, other state institutions, and civil society organisations. And finally, there is universities’ role in producing new knowledge, whereby the socio-economic and political conditions are of major importance to create the structural conditions for development (Castells 2009). In order to be able to fulfil these roles, universities have to be connected simultaneously to the information economy and to the socio-cultural challenges the society is undergoing (Cloete & Maassen, Chapter 1)

In political development, democratisation and the consolidation and sustainability of democracy, education has a special role with respect to political socialisation, and universities have been central in the process of shaping civic values, constructing a new basis of belonging and citizenship, educating citizen leaders (Pascarella & Terrenzini 2005), and “making possible equal opportunities for people” even in the socio-political realm (Castells 2009). The notion of ‘elite’ socialisation has a different meaning in a democratising society in that from a democratic perspective - however utopian the democratic ideal – it is inclusive: any citizen is potentially a citizen leader and member of the political ‘elite’. The imperfection of political reality in the actually existing democracies of our time is not to distract from this fundamentally egalitarian political ideal.

Citizenship education is with respect to these functions an essential part of contextually relevant education in democracies. It is premised on the complementarity of the notions that all individuals are entitled to human rights and all citizens are entitled to civil and political rights equally. In the words of UNESCO (2014: 1):

 All forms of citizenship education inculcate (or aim at inculcating) respect for others and recognition of the equality of all human beings; and at combating all forms of discrimination (racist, gender-based, religious, etc.) by fostering a spirit of tolerance and peace among human beings. Thus when we speak of the purposes to be ascribed to either citizenship education (producing citizens with moral qualities) or human rights education (comprising a knowledge of the social and political rights of all human beings, and their recognition) we inevitably end up with the complementarity between citizenship and human rights. (UNESCO 2014: 1)

The purpose of citizenship education is therefore to further democracy by educating people about their rights and the principles and institutions that govern them, in exercising critical judgement, and in their sense of self and responsibility towards others and their community (UNESCO 2014). This is meant to apply at all levels of education. Yet, citizenship education is more widely studied as a role of general education than specifically in relation to higher education; meanwhile, being placed at the apex of the education system, higher education has immense potential to contribute to the good of society by contributing to “the production and consolidation of values – ethical values, personal values – and the formation of flexible personalities” (Castells 2009: 4).

.... to be continued.......

---

[1] Directorate: Institutional Research and Academic Planning, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein/Mangaung, South Africa. Email: thierryluescher@outlook.com

[2] Directorate: Quality Assurance, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.

[3] Directorate: Student Development, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.

[4] Centre for Student Support Services, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa.

[5] Department of Political Studies, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa.

[6] Democracy in Africa Research Unit, Centre for Social Science Research, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.

Martin Hall to step down as University of Salford v-c | News | Times Higher Education

Martin Hall to step down as University of Salford v-c | News | Times Higher Education
My former PhD co-supervisor is retiring from his VC post in Salford, UK.