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While concerns about graduate unemployment and the work-readiness of graduates in Sub-Saharan Africa abound, there is a severe lack of institutional data and academic research on graduate destinations on which to base policy changes. This article presents findings from an exploratory study of three major higher education institutions in Kenya. An online survey was conducted of undergraduate students graduating between 6 and 12 months prior to the study, aiming to determine, first, what employment activities they were engaged in, and second, what associations there might be between those activities, the graduates' background characteristics, and their experiences at university. Findings suggest that proportions of absolute unemployment are lower than expected, but that many graduates are transiting between provisional or part-time employment and internships, and have not yet obtained the graduate level jobs aspired to. Finally, implications are drawn out for potential national-level graduate destination surveys in Kenya and elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa.

What efforts and policy commitments need to be made, to ensure that higher education in Africa is central to realizing Africa’s development imperatives? Both in Africa and among the development partner community, academics and policy makers recognize the importance of higher education for Africa’s development. Public and private higher education institutions are expanding, boosting enrollments. In most countries, new buffer bodies have been created to provide governance oversight, guarantee greater institutional autonomy from undue political control, and strengthen the institutions, to allow them engage in national and continental development issues. Greater policy commitments from the African Union Commission (AUC) have rejuvenated regional higher education bodies working to set quality assurance frameworks, and reorganized commissions for science and technology that are mobilizing funding for research and innovation for higher education institutions. Are these developments leveraging higher education institutions to play new important roles in crafting Africa’s future? What will it take for Africa’s higher education to be pivotal in reconstructing Africa’s future?---Quels sont les efforts et les engagements politiques qui doivent être mis en œuvre pour s’assurer que l’enseignement supérieur joue un rôle central dans la réalisation des impératifs de développement en Afrique ? Que ce soit en Afrique ou parmi la communauté des partenaires du développement, les universitaires et les décideurs politiques reconnaissent l’importance de l’enseignement supérieur pour le développement du continent. Les établissements d’enseignement supérieur publiques et privés se développent, entraînant une augmentation des inscriptions. Dans la plupart des pays, de nouveaux organismes tampons ont été créés afin d’assurer une surveillance de la gouvernance, de garantir une plus grande autonomie institutionnelle vis-à-vis d’un contrôle politique injustifié, et de renforcer les institutions pour leur permettre de s’engager pleinement dans des enjeux de développement à l’échelle nationale et continentale.Un plus grand engagement politiques de la part de la Commission de l’Union Africaine (CUA) a permis de revivifier l’activité d’organismes régionaux d’enseignement supérieur chargés d’instaurer des cadres d’assurance qualité, et de mener à la réorganisation des commissions pour la science et la technologie qui mobilisent les fonds pour la recherche et l’innovation destinés aux établissements d’enseignement supérieur. Ces développements ont-ils poussé les institutions d’enseignement supérieur à jouer d’importants nouveaux rôles dans l’élaboration de l’avenir africain ? Que faudra-t-il faire pour que l’enseignement supérieur en Afrique devienne central dans la reconstruction de l’avenir de l’Afrique ?

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In-person mobility has traditionally been taken for granted as an element of academic collaboration. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted this status quo, introducing new challenges, especially across Africa, Asia and Latin America, where local economies and higher education systems have been disproportionately affected, exacerbating existing inequities. Low and unequal vaccination rates in these regions will likely continue to influence academic mobility. Given that international travel is set to remain complicated and expensive, African, Asian and Latin American academics’ preference for North America and Europe as destinations for mobility is likely to shift, with new academic mobility ecosystems emerging. Indeed, strong institutions and countries in these regions are becoming new hubs for intra-regional mobility and collaboration. The future of academic mobility and collaboration in Africa, Asia and Latin America is thus likely to include alternative destinations and virtual mobility, with the possibility of lower levels of international cooperation as the perceived value of mobility comes into question. These changes call for creative, long-term plans by institutions as well as governments. They present opportunities to promote mobility within regions, as well as South-South mobility in order to increase higher education’s social relevance.