Higher education in Africa is internationalising - slowly

Higher education in Africa has been internationalising, driven by student mobility, the growth of English and an array of initiatives including the creation of regional bodies and networks and improved internet connectivity. But outside of South Africa, lack of strategies and the many challenges facing higher education are hampering its growth.

This is according to James Otieno Jowi, Executive Director of the African Network for Internationalisation of Education, based at Moi University in Kenya. He was speaking at the 1st QS-MAPLE conference held in Dubai from 1-2 May.

With the role of universities in sustainable development widely acknowledged, and in the context of globalisation, internationalisation has gained a central position in higher education with varying implications and consequences for different regions and institutions, Jowi said.

Initiatives to promote internationalisation in Africa have been increasing, with the key actors including government departments and agencies, regional organisations, NGOs and "regional university associations and research networks which continue to flourish across the continent more than ever before".

Jowi said internationalisation was also being driven by new developments in the higher education landscape in Africa. These include:

* Rapid expansion of higher education, especially in numbers of students, institutions and their types, actors and the diversity of academic programmes.
* Increasing mobility of students across national boundaries, making African students among the most mobile in the world.
* The growing role of the English language in academic engagements, especially in countries that have been using other languages for scholarship.
* Improved information and communication technologies, especially internet connectivity, which has changed how universities, students and staff participate in internationalisation.
* Growth of regional networks and programmes has played a "crucial" role in supporting internationalisation.
* Greater interest in and support of African higher education by international partners.
* Increasing intra-Africa initiatives including centres of excellence, quality assurance frameworks, enhanced collaborations between universities, and attempts to harmonise academic programmes.

However, Jowi told University World News, universities in most African countries have dealt with internationalisation in an "ad hoc, non-coordinated and non-coherent way. This makes the objectives and outcomes unclear." There has also been lack of dialogue about the realities and consequences of internationalisation.

This is a void that Jowi's African Network for Internationalisation of Education has been trying to fill. ANIE's main role is to enhance understanding, advocacy and development of the international dimension of higher education on the continent by expanding knowledge and building and sustaining a cohort of competent professionals in this field.

Aside from a messy approach to internationalisation in most Sub-Saharan African countries, Jowi said, progress has also been impeded by problems faced by higher education.

"As such, there are numerous and multifaceted concerns, challenges and risks associated with the process of internationalisation," he said, which have raised questions over its potential on the continent.

"Africa encounters internationalisation engulfed in weaknesses that emanate from the confluence of historical, economic, educational, financial and paradigmatic contexts," Jowi explained, including serious institutional drawbacks such as weak structures and capacities, poor planning and inadequate financial support for internationalisation.

"Quality and weak regulatory frameworks is another challenge and is at the epicenter of internationalisation. Africa's research capacity is also quite marginal, standing at a meager 1% of the world's total. African higher education has continued to depend heavily on external resources in both funding and academic discourse."

"Africa's higher education remains at the margins of international higher education systems with neither a meaningful identity nor influence. As intra-Africa internationalisation initiatives begin to take root, supportive policy frameworks to facilitate student mobility and credit transfers are still problematic.

"And even though there are some improvements, ICT infrastructure and utilisation is still rather low," he continued.

Further, internationalisation came with attendant risks for Africa including the brain drain, commodification and commercialisation of higher education, unfair collaborations dominated by Western hegemony and lack of reciprocity, and negative influences on curriculum and academic quality especially through 'bogus' foreign providers.

Still, internationalisation offered opportunities for African higher education that could be used to mitigate some of the challenges and risks.

While the goals for internationalisation varied among regions, countries and institutions, African universities saw significant academic advantages including opportunities for funding, partnerships and new intra-Africa initiatives and developments in higher education.

"They would like to enhance their research capacity, improve quality and have innovations in curriculum that would contribute to better learning outcomes," Jowi told University World News. "They also see internationalisation as important in enabling them to develop their physical infrastructures and human resource capacity, and to forge strategic allowances.

"Internationalisation is also crucial in preparing globally competent graduates and enhances the visibility and international standing of institutions, especially in this era of rankings. In the long run, it will enable institutions to be more competitive and able to better respond to challenges in their contexts."

-          Karen MacGregor

Women post highest ever levels of MBA applications

More women than ever before are seeing business school and corporate careers as an option, according to two recent influential surveys of global MBA candidates.

The QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey, which received responses from MBA candidates at the QS World MBA Tour in 2009, and the GMAC Alumni Perspectives Survey 2010, from the same period, show startlingly similar results.

According to the QS Survey, a record 46% of attendees at their World MBA Tour were women, continuing an upward trend that has occurred over recent years. Meanwhile the GMAC report shows that 40% of its GMAT (General Management Admissions Test) takers were women, the actual number peaking over 100,000 for the first time ever.
 
David A Wilson, president and chief executive officer of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), which runs and organizes the GMAT, says: “In the US it seems that women are faring better in the recession than men. Men are taking the brunt of the job losses.”

He continues: “There are many reasons for this. Women, figures show, are great at getting jobs they want. These involve a lot more public sector jobs and sectors that are less susceptible to job losses, perhaps those that don’t earn such big bonuses as, say, the finance sector. This makes their jobs safer.”
 

Female GMAT test-takers

GMAC figures show that the number of women taking the GMAT test in 2009 was the highest ever, over 100,000 for the first time. Though more than half of these were in the US the increase is global. The proportion of female GMAT test-takers is also marginally under 40%.

Zoya Zaitseva, manager of the QS World MBA Tour, says: “In 2009, though 46% of applicants to the QS World MBA Tour were women, for the first time ever, there are some countries where the proportion of women was over 50% and we’re looking into why that might be.”

China is one such example. According to GMAC figures, about 55% of Chinese GMAT takers in 2009 were women, a significantly high figure. David Wilson says: “Education, and business education in particular, offers women in China their best chance to become upwardly mobile. So we’re seeing more and more women considering business school as an option and taking the GMAT to facilitate this.”

MBA scholarships
 

Interestingly, Eastern Europe and Central Asia show similar tendencies – around 55% - in opposition to Western Europe, where a proportionately very low number of QS World MBA Tour attendees and GMAT takers are women. This has lead Zaitseva of QS to introduce region-specific scholarships of €2,000 for women from Central or Eastern Europe who want to do their Masters abroad.

There is also a similar €45,000 scholarship from IE Business School. Zaitseva says: “Women in this region are becoming increasingly aware of the opportunities that an MBA program can give them. Though some recruiters in the area are still waking up to the possibilities MBA graduates can offer them, this is steadily increasing and women see themselves as a major fixture in companies at home and abroad.”

Although the MBA scene has been heavily male-dominated in recent years – stats show that even in the UK a mere 11% of board members are women – experts feel that parity will be achieved, at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Florence Barkats, a London Business School student and chair of the Women in Business Conference 2010: Embracing Change in a Global Environment, says: “Seeing an MBA as an option gives women aspirations they didn’t have in the past. It is seen as socially acceptable now, with more successful women in the workplace, and we have more role models - if she has done it, I can do it too. Women are going to b-school to realize this potential.”

In support, business schools are making a significant push to attract high-caliber women to their courses, as supported by the increase in the number of gender-specific scholarships available. Diversity is key to success in business schools in the 21st century as countless studies show, and, as Barkats concludes, “ having a good gender balance within groups leads to a far more successful work group, and one that achieves more.”

-          Ross Geraghty