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As colleges and universities have adopted a corporate model in recent decades, debate over the public versus private good associated with higher education has surged. The deliberations have typically been entrenched in Western notions about academia's contributions to development and scholars have framed academic capitalism dichotomously; a force for good or evil. Far less is known about the market model of higher education in developing nations. We sought to explore this gap by examining how faculty and staff at two public universities in Africa view the intersection of marketization and development.

Higher education institutions in Africa are increasingly vital to development efforts. While there is burgeoning research that suggests many universities are reforming in order to include intentional development efforts, perceived crisis and the paucity of resources on the continent has created a contentious relationship between higher education and development. To surmount this prevailing sentiment, alternative organizations that facilitate higher education's contribution to the development process in Africa should be considered. One such alternative is the higher education policy network. This case study examined the Association of African Universities (AAU) as a policy network influencing development in Africa. The results are interpreted through Roberts and King's (1991) notion of policy entrepreneurship, a framework that provides an analytical understanding of AAU activities in policymaking and development. We suggest that this framework may be pursued with more intentionality by higher education policy networks, particularly in regard to building organizational capacity and monitoring and evaluating policy innovations.

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