Local varsities must do more to attract African students

A private university recently put up a TV advert showing how international students are playing a crucial role in the internationalisation of university education. In the advert, students from several African countries successfully represent a university sensitive to demands of a globalised, borderless campus reality. Students from neighbourig countries are now a common feature of local universities, owing to the perceived status of universities in Kenya regionally.

In my department alone, I have students from Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Burundi and Namibia. However, even as intra-Africa student mobility is rising, local universities seem unprepared to managing a more expanded student community beyond the traditional confines of the nation.

Students’ mobility and internalisation of the local academe is a factor of the unavoidable reality of globalisation. Globalisation has not just disrupted and revolutionised the way nation states relate to each other, but in a context of complex communication infrastructure and an increased flow of ideas, goods and services, it has collapsed the limits of geographical movement.

For universities, internationalisation through students’ mobility is inevitable and universities must simply embrace it or lose their relevance.

Across the world, forward looking universities deliberately integrate a global dimension into the purpose, functions and delivery of their services.

Three decades ago, academic disciplines in linguistics, literature and technology were populated by faculty from other African countries, notably West Africans. Thus, the current trends of mobility now involving students are not new, but are the natural outworking of the character of higher education in a dynamic, changing world. Scholarship and knowledge are by nature transnational. Top universities are not only expected to be diverse in terms of race and nationality but most also maintain their reputation through such diversity. About 50 per cent of graduate students in Oxford and Cambridge are non-British. The fact that the concept of the universe itself is contained in the term ‘university’ is evidence of the vital role that knowledge and free movement of people play in higher education. But it is not just senior scholars who are crossing international borders; students are increasingly traversing borders in search of an alternative higher education.

Brain drain

In Africa, most students travel to France, South Africa, the UK, USA, Germany, Malaysia, Canada, Italy and Australia, in that order. According to statistics, the percentage of African students who travelled to seek higher education preferred countries in Western Europe and North America. While the South-North mobility of students has strengthened the capacity of local institutions, it has also led to brain drain and fed the economies of the host countries, thereby leading to an asymmetrical dependency relationship even in research.

In this regard, developed nations are the beneficiaries of international student mobility, as more than 90 per cent of international students have enrolled in institutions in countries considered the most developed. Six countries - the US, the UK, Germany, France, Australia, and Japan - dominate the flow of international students, hosting 67 per cent of the world’s international students. Within the continent, South Africa, Ghana, Senegal and Morocco attract the highest number of students from the continent.

The grim reality is that African countries are not doing enough to attract other Africans to their institutions. There are clear advantages of pursuing an international outlook, especially through other African students. Like their counterparts in the West, increased mobility of students within the continent is a lucrative source of revenue for the university and the local economies as well. In Kenya, for instance, the avenues through which local universities are sourcing funds are increasingly narrowing. The recent examination reforms in higher education spearheaded by the Education Cabinet Secretary now means that the flow of income from privately sponsored programmes is practically dead. Universities that will attract the most students from across the borders are the universities that will thrive. The same will have multiplier effects on the wider economy.

For instance, international students have contributed as much as US$8.12 billion (Sh838 billion) per year to the Australian economy. In New Zealand, the higher education service is the country’s fifth largest service export generating as much as US$1.46 billion (Sh150 billion) per year in foreign exchange, placing it firmly amongst New Zealand’s leading industries. In several ways, as African universities focus on building intra-Africa students’ mobility and improving on their international outlook, the impact on the power relations in knowledge production and flow of knowledge will be disrupted. The reason is simple. For so long African universities have imagined collaborative relations as only those involving universities in the North. But the rise of intra-Africa students’ mobility is awakening universities to the urgent need of pursuing collaborations with other African universities. Still, a number of impediments stand in the way of internationalisation of higher education in Kenya.

First, local universities are structurally inward looking. The recently released CUE report on admission requirements for local universities effectively sets KNEC-affiliated examinations as the clearest route to a degree in local universities. The modalities for equivalent admission criteria beyond the KCSE certificate to an undergraduate degree in Kenya are unclear. Worse, in cases where an alternative admission criterion is provided, some Western qualifications are privileged over other regional certification. It is far much easier for a British educated child to join a local university than it is for a Tanzanian student. While diverse higher education systems and curriculum structures across universities in the region contribute to the challenges of student mobility, poor harmonisation of structures have only made these processes difficult.

Secondly, local universities have underdeveloped internationalisation strategies or policies, thus it is difficult to identify the positions of institutions when it comes to intra-Africa student mobility. The general absence of institutional mechanism that supports student mobility has contributed to the poor marketing and position of universities in the regional market. Some institutions do not even have a comprehensive data of their international students. Although improvements have been made with regard to immigration regimes, most African countries have the most unreasonable VISA requirements for other Africans. Such structural issues continue to undermine the movement of students within the continent.

Thirdly, African countries must learn to tame their often virulent politics. Instability, civil strife and post-election violence scare potential students, not to mention the occasional invasion of universities by politicians. Indeed, the list of the leading countries in Africa in attracting other African students, which include South Africa, Senegal, Morocco and Ghana, reads more like a list of the most politically stable countries in the continent.

Technology

Finally, local universities must embrace technology. To internationalise also means leveraging on the affordances of technology. It is shocking that many local universities cannot accept emailed applications or even do a Skype interview. The makeup of university websites and how they brand themselves on the web clearly shows that the default inward look is entrenched. Most websites of local public universities are a disastrous parading of irrelevant information. But more crucially, the contacts displayed on them are often dysfunctional. Complaints of unanswered emails are the most common from prospective international students. It is bad manners not to reply to e-mails in the 21st century.

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