Higher Education and Skills Development in Africa: An Analytical Paper on the Role of Higher Learning Institutions on Sustainable Development
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Date
2021-08-27Author
Mbithi, P. M. F.
Mbau, J. S.
Muthama, N. J.
Inyega, H
J. M., Kalai
Type
ArticleLanguage
en_USMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Many Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Africa face challenges that require the intervention
of national governments, development partners and other stakeholders. HEIs also require new
investment paradigms to maximize students’ acquisition of work-ready skills, knowledge and attitudes
to enable students to contribute effectively to the workforce. The objective of this study was to
identify reforms and investments needed to strengthen Higher Education (HE) in Africa and to inform
the design and implementation of future investments and policy for sustainable development. A
systematic review approach, involving a synthesis of literature on this theme in Africa in recent years,
by African governments, education networks, academia and international bodies, was employed. The
study used data from UNESCO and World Bank databases which were blended with the synthesis
of the literature. The obtained literature was analysed and synthesized on the basis of its relevance
and value to the HEIs study discourse. Textual and thematic analysis tookcentre stage with a view
to establishing current reforms in HEIs and the concomitant investments that national governments
and other key stakeholders need to make to have robust HEIs. The study used the Human Capital
Theory that postulates that the most efficient path to the national development of any society lies in
the improvement of its population, which is considered as the human capital. Despite criticisms of
the human capital theory at the individual level on the extent to which education is directly related
to improvements in occupation or income, human capital theorists generally assume that after all the
known inputs into economic growth have been explained, much of the unexplained residual variance
represents the contribution of the improvement of human capital, of which education is seen as most
important (Merwe, 2010). The results of the study show that HEIs have done very little to promote
Intra-Africa Academic Mobility and nurture HEI-industry partnerships to address demand and supply
aspects of the labour force. The massification of higher education, resulting in a democratization
of education, and the advent of the knowledge economy and globalization, among other factors,
are being experienced without commensurate planning and with no corresponding accompanying
increase in resources to enable the HEIs cope with the increased student population. HEIs in Africa
are sub-optimally capacitated to combat Africa’s pressing challenges such as unemployment, climate
change and COVID-19 pandemic. The study points out that HEIs need to evolve in tandem with
continental and global market needs to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 4
on quality education. Further, it recommends that HEIs should encourage Intra-Africa Academic
Mobility and foster HEI-industry partnerships to address demand-and-supply aspects of the labour
force. In this respect, HEIs in Africa should be developing curricula aimed at building capacity of
leaders and professionals to respond to the need to decarbonize and dematerialize development in
Africa and leverage on the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Consequently, HEIs must prepare students to
be entrepreneurial and resilient; able to continue to learn and reinvent themselves and their careers
throughout their lives. Indeed, HEIs should view themselves as creative hubs where partners come
together and harness each other’s synergy to innovate and solve societal problems.
URI
http://uonjournals.uonbi.ac.ke/ojs/index.php/jsep/article/view/782http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/handle/11295/155618
Citation
Mbithi P. M. F., J. S. Mbau, N. J. Muthama, H. Inyega and J. M. Kalai, (2021). Higher Education and Skills Development in Africa: An Analytical Paper on the Role of Higher Learning Institutions on Sustainable Development. J. sustain. environ. peace 4 (2) 58–73Publisher
JSEP