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.