Why universities should promote research at all academic levels

University of Nairobi students during a graduation ceremony at the graduation square for the 51st graduation ceremony on Friday 28th, August 2014. [Photo/Jonah Onyango/Standard].

Universities in sub-Saharan Africa have been undergoing a crisis of identity.

Initially established by the colonial administration as centres to train mid-level professionals and thereafter given the task of building local meritocratic bureaucracy for newly independent states, pursuit of new knowledge has never been the forte of these institutions.