NN41, December 2008
The New Politics of Partnership: Peril or Promise?
The Historical Effect of Partnerships in East Africa
By David Court, consultant, Nairobi, formerly Rockefeller Foundation, East Africa
Email: davidcourt@iconnect.co.keKeywords
Partnership, East Africa, North-South university partnership
Summary
This article looks at the historical impact on universities in East Africa of North-South partnerships against a current background of university crisis that will make partnership a challenge.
The state of partnership conditions in East Africa
NORRAG?s latest focus, on the concept of partnership, coincides with my retiree effort to sort out and dispose of books and articles on the topic assembled over 30 years. Renewed contact, with at least the titles of this extensive array, provokes the following thoughts on the historical impact on universities of North-South partnerships.
The extent of written attention to the topic underscores the significance of the ever-changing North-South relationship on the purpose, character and quality of universities in Africa.
My archive reveals thee distinct historical periods:
? The relatively straightforward 1960s-1970s period, of post-independence excellence and elitism which produced a relatively uncritical duplication of the best that the North had to offer at that time.
? The political instability of the 1980s led to national disregard for higher education (HE), and the beginning of questioning on both sides about what the appropriate content of imported partnerships should be.
? The mid-1990s to the present have produced expanded north and south recognition of the importance of universities for national development. Globalization has accelerated this perception. New technology - computerization, internet, ICT, mobile phones etc, has created a powerful international context of instant communication, expanded knowledge, and scope for large scale partnership cooperation.
The overriding connection across all three periods has been the impact of the changing state of the national and international situations on what happens at the universities. In this context there are two key cross-period themes affecting the concept of HE in Africa: (a) the changing philosophy of northern organizations and b) its relationship to evolving southern politics and governing practice.
In our thinking about what makes sense today, there is some virtue in drawing lessons from historical reviews. However, the radical nature of contextual change over the past decade, led by internet access, makes it more useful to focus now on the evident consequences for partnership of the current content and environment.
Northern recognition of the importance of HE by the World Bank and international agencies multiplies potential support and diversifies partnerships, but causes problems of relevance and ownership. This has provoked political sensitivity about the need for mutual agreement in university decision making, and the danger of dictation from the sources of finance:
? Northern Agencies, and particularly the World Bank, tend to rely on central theoretical criteria and pay limited attention to the all important local conditions and needs.
? Evaluations of northern agency efforts tend to be biased towards programme success rather than more common failures, and the criteria of success tend to be pre-established northern ones.
? Consultancy arrangements and money-seeking research make little contribution to national or regional development.
The situation in the south does not bode well for strong partnerships. A recent university speech by a Kenya specialist provides the following analysis: ?Universities have ceased to be genuine institutions of higher learning?the country is at a cross-roads because universities have become commercial ventures...It will not realise its potential unless the institutions change their manner of conducting business?it could only be built through research which they have abandoned?Kenyans are becoming obsessed with certificates at the expense of quality?ethnicity has permeated universities and we either change course or we perish? (Daily Nation November 14 2008). No shortage of challenges then! The following problems therefore remain:
? Governments tend to view the expansion of HE as a political purpose, unrelated to its content. This motivation expands student numbers and disregards quality and professionalism. Research is turning into commercial self interest.
? There has been a vast increase in the number of universities - private, public, religious in origin ? and of students. However this has been accompanied by a significant decline in the quality and relevance of what is taught. Not a single university outside South Africa gets into the top 500 of the official quality league table of universities.
? For ethnic and other reasons, there is little official willingness to focus resources on a few high quality institutions that could provide models of research, teaching quality and outstanding students.
? The recent Accra conference of the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa (PHEA) confirmed the fact that ?African Universities face a Looming Shortage of PhDs? and stated further ?African Universities are rapidly losing their faculty members to retirement and industry, and their capacity to educate new PhD holders is eroding, raising deep concerns about the continent?s ability to produce new generations of academics? and strong partnership teams. (Chronicle on Higher Education)
? The large scale externally funded PHEA has itself made some important contributions to university development but, as its evaluations have shown, university responses are limited, partly because the founding members themselves have found partnership with each other an unexpected challenge!
There is still a need for assessment and analysis of research partnerships?what works what does not work, why, and what should be done. This should include:
? Wider assessment of the assumptions aims and practices of the many Northern agencies that support research.
? Specification of the response of southern researchers to external involvement and conditionality.
? Clear documentation of the practice, quality, and developmental relevance of research partnerships.
? Detailed examples of success, and particularly failure, because agencies tend to neglect northern limitations.
? Partnerships that get beyond education scholars and involve economists, environmentalists and the younger generation, in thinking about innovation and what universities ought to be doing.
? More assessment from the south.
What are required are coherent analyses of successful partnerships-regional and international-and likewise, the inclusion of case study failures, with conditions and causes in each aspect. Conclusions can be drawn as to what university mechanisms have been inspired by partnerships, and how the concept itself has changed and improved. Serious partnership attention must be paid to quality PhD level training.
Academic investigation over the last 30 years has focussed on the kinds of partnership that can help promote the purpose, pattern and distinction of university roles in the south. The challenge continues.
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