An appraisal of the internationalisation of higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa

Alemu, Sintayehu Kassaye (author)

Over the past decades, the development of the internationalisation of higher education has revised the conceptual framework of higher education, enhanced its scope, scale and importance, and transformed its world, as well as reshaping relationships between countries. More powerful universities play a central role and are suppliers of knowledge, whereas weaker institutions and systems with fewer resources and lower academic standards occupy a peripheral position and are consumers. The centre-periphery dichotomy in the internationalisation of higher education undoubtedly presents considerable challenges to the higher education institutions of the peripheries. For developing regions like Africa, higher education is an important instrument for socioeconomic development, and one of the strategies to improve and qualify higher education is internationalisation. In spite of various attempts to enhance the benefits of internationalisation, African higher education has continued to be peripheral, with relationships remaining asymmetrical, unethical and unequal. Along with some positive benefits, internationalisation has brought complicated implications and new challenges, such as the brain drain, cultural values, the commodification of higher education, the persistence of inequality between global north-south universities, and so on. The purpose of the present paper is to highlight the challenges and unintended consequences of the internationalisation of higher education, with a particular focus on Africa.

• Language: English
• Keywords: higher education, internationalisation, centre, periphery, challenges, Sub-Saharan Africa
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: PEF - Faculty of Education
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2014
• Number of pages: Str. 71-90
• Numbering: Vol. 4, no. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-29872
• UDC: 378
• ISSN on article: 1855-9719
• DOI: 10.26529/cepsj.205
• COBISS.SI-ID: 10105673

Copyright

Podatek o licenci CC BY 4.0 je naveden na pristajalni strani članka (glej zgoraj izvorni URL). (Datum opombe: 20. 8. 2025)

• Publication date in RUL: 02.10.2014

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: CEPS journal. Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal
• Publisher: Pedagoška fakulteta, Univerza v Ljubljani, Pedagoška fakulteta Univerze, Založba Univerze v Ljubljani, = University of Ljubljana Press
• ISSN: 1855-9719
• COBISS.SI-ID: 252707584

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Presoja internacionalizacije v visokem šolstvu v podsaharski Afriki

Abstract

V zadnjih desetletjih je razvoj internacionalizacije visokega šolstva revidiral konceptualne okvire visokega šolstva, okrepil njegov obseg in pomembnost, preoblikoval njegov svet in odnose med državami. Vplivnejše univerze pri tem igrajo osrednjo vlogo in so ponudnice znanja, medtem ko šibkejše ustanove in sistemi z manj sredstvi in nižjimi akademskimi standardi zavzemajo obrobno vlogo in so uporabniki tega znanja. Dihotomija centra in periferije v internacionalizaciji visokega šolstva nesporno predstavlja velik izziv ustanovam na periferiji. Za regije v razvoju, kot je Afrika, je visoko šolstvo pomemben instrument pri družbeno-ekonomskem razvoju, ena izmed strategij za izboljšanje in zvišanje kakovosti visokega šolstva pa je prav internacionalizacija. Kljub različnim poskusom, da bi povečali učinke internacionalizacije, ostaja afriško visoko šolstvo periferno, razmerja pa še vedno nesimetrična, neetična in neenakopravna. Poleg nekaterih pozitivnih učinkov je internacionalizacija prinesla tudi zapletene posledice in nove probleme, kot so: beg možganov, sprememba kulturnih vrednot, komodifikacija visokega šolstva, ohranjanje neenakosti med univerzami v razmerju severa in juga idr. Namen prispevka je, da osvetli probleme in nepredvidene posledice internacionalizacije visokega šolstva s posebnim osredinjenjem na Afriko.

• Keywords: internacionalizacija, visoko šolstvo, Afrika, osrednji izzivi, obrobni izzivi, podsaharska Afrika, visokošolsko izobraževanje