A tenuous relationship: The African university and development policymaking in the 1980s

Abstract

This paper examines some reasons why research findings generated by African university-based researchers seldom are taken into serious consideration by development policyrnakers in anglophone Africa. It begins with a brief review of the introduction of British models of higher education and scientific research into Africa, using Nigeria as an illustrative case. It then considers the current research environment of the African university and the changing role of the university in the late 1980s. The paper posits a number of reasons why research carried out at African universities rarely is used as input by policymakers in their development planning processes: (1) there is a clear dichotomy between the university and government, with relations that can best be described as mutually suspicious; (2) there is a dichotomy between university-based researchers working on national development problems and the rural populations who usually are intended as the recipients or beneficiaries of the research findings; and (3) research is seriously underfunded in virtually all African universities, with the result that researchers seldom have sufficient means to carry out effective dissemination of their research findings. The paper ends with some suggestions as to how the impact of these problems might be minimized. In 1988 two of Africa's first western-style universities celebrate their 40th birthdays. The University of Ibadan in Nigeria and Makerere University in Uganda both were established in 1948 as colleges of the University of London. In the four decades since, universities have been established in most African countries, anglophone and francophone, faculties have become increasingly Africanized, and links with metropolitan institutions have been broken or have taken different forms. Today there are more than 80 universities in Africa (including North Africa but excluding South Africa) although the proportion of university places to population is still the lowest of any major region of the world (Ayandele, 1982). Many African universities are engaged in a process of moving from a position of strong dependency on the models of the metropole towards the development of models which better suit the political and economic structures within which they operate. At the same time, however, in a period of economic recession, they are under greater pressure than ever before to compete for resources to enable them to fulfill their dual human resource development and research mandates. This places the African university in a position of continued dependency on external support, especially for The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of the International Development Research Centre.

Training in Farming Systems Research: Review and Prospects

“…A new Swedish/FAO initiative in FSR for eastern and southern Africa includes a focus on local university teaching staff. Involvement in FSR offers universities the opportunity to address national agricultural and rural development problems (Rathberger, 1988). But because FSR is not a separate discipline, it is probably better to explore how the procedures and concepts can strengthen the university curriculum than to establish separate academic programmes or departments in FSR.…”