Universities have been challenged to move beyond producing graduates with academic qualifications and instead ensure that what students learn translates into jobs, innovation, businesses and solutions to problems facing their communities.
The call emerged during the inaugural Higher Education Transformation Convening in Accra, Ghana, where education leaders, governments, industry representatives, financial institutions and young people examined how universities can better connect learning with economic opportunity.
Hosted by the Mastercard Foundation, the meeting also marked the launch of the Africa Higher Education for Transformation (AHEFT) Prize, backed by about Sh64.5 billion over the next decade.
The programme aims to recognise at least 150 African institutions demonstrating sustained, institution-wide transformation.
Five universities and higher education institutions were named the inaugural laureates. Each will receive about Sh387 million to expand initiatives focused on teaching, research, employment pathways and community impact.
The winners are Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering in Burkina Faso, Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Uganda’s Muni University and the University of Rwanda.
No Kenyan institution featured among the inaugural winners, placing the spotlight on what universities in Kenya and elsewhere on the continent can do differently ahead of the 2027 prize cycle.
Mastercard Foundation president and chief executive Sewit Ahderom called on universities to offer courses that are keeping pace with labour market.
“Transformation is not just a better university. It is a university that makes the whole economy around it work better for young people,” she said.
She called for employers to be involved in curriculum development so that what universities teach reflects changing economic needs.
She also argued that qualifications should show what graduates can do rather than simply how long they studied, while universities should equip young people to lead emerging technologies.
Equally important, she said, is ensuring research does not remain within academic institutions but moves into industry, government and communities and returns as enterprise and employment.
The push comes against a backdrop of limited investment in higher education and research. Professor Saidou Madougou, director in the African Union’s Department of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, said higher education spending averages less than 0.8 per cent of GDP, while research and development receives less than 0.5 per cent of national budgets.
He urged African countries to strengthen cooperation between universities, increase student and faculty mobility and create systems that allow knowledge and innovation to move across borders.
Dr John Nkengasong, Mastercard Foundation executive director for higher education and strategic initiatives, said the continent’s ability to develop and retain talent would determine whether its youthful population becomes an economic opportunity.
“Higher education transformation is not simply an education agenda. It is an economic imperative,” Nkengasong said.
He called for governments, universities, industry, investors and development partners to treat education as a strategic investment arguing that no institution could deliver the required changes alone.
Young people at the convening also called for a direct role in shaping decisions on education, work and opportunity, arguing that their experiences should inform policies and programmes intended to prepare them for the future.
The inaugural winners provided examples of the community-centred approach being advocated. Muni University Vice Chancellor Associate Professor Anguma Simon Katrini said universities should break away from the traditional “ivory tower” model.
“The future of African universities is not within our walls alone; it is also in our communities,” he said, urging institutions to listen to local challenges and put knowledge to work alongside communities.
At the University of Rwanda, the prize will support further work in health education, research and innovation, including efforts to develop a health workforce responsive to community needs.
AHEFT jury chair Susan Chomba said the winning institutions demonstrated different approaches to meaningful transformation, providing lessons that other universities can adapt to their own contexts.
