Reframing the relationship of higher education and public good in Africa

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

The relationship between higher education and the public good has been adopted in much work on development planning for Africa, drawing without reflection on the history of the relationship between these ideas and practices in Europe and North America (Unterhalter, Allais et al, 2018; McCowan, 2016 a &b) . This panel will present the findings from the research project Higher education, inequality and the public good in four African countries: Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa distilling some of the conditions of possibility in which the form of this relationship has emerged in these contexts. It will also report on some of the major constraints that emerge and how different constituencies have negotiated these.

The objectives of this panel are to present an analysis of data from key informant interviews in the four countries illuminating internal and external conditions that constrain and support a connection between higher education and the public good.

The panel consists of three papers and the reflections of a discussant, as outlined below. One paper synthesizes key findings from across the four countries. Two papers reflect on how contemporary conditions in South Africa have imposed particular contextual stresses on the relationship of higher education and public good. In concluding with reflections as a discussant Moses Oketch will place these contemporary highly contextualized findings in relation to some of the history and emerging trends in relation to higher education in Africa.

Sub Unit

• SIG: Africa

Chairs

• Tristan McCowan, University College London

• Stephanie Matseleng Allais, University of the Witwatersrand

Individual Presentations

• Conditions of possibility: Higher Education, instrumental and intrinsic forms of public Good in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. - Elaine Unterhalter, Institute of Education, University College London; Stephanie Matseleng Allais, University of the Witwatersrand; Lerato Posholi, University of the Witwatersrand; Colleen Jane Howell, University College London

• Higher education as a public good in South Africa: A three-tier perspective of context and conditions - Samuel N. Fongwa, Human Sciences Research Council

• The Public Good Role of South African Universities in Ideal Types: Entrepreneurial, Developmental and Welfare Universities - Palesa Molebatsi, REAL, University of the Witwatersrand

Discussant

• Moses Oketch, University College London