By WANG YOURAN

In order to realize its full potential, Africa should prioritize the public good in its higher education agenda, a UN official said at the recent Times Higher Education African Universities Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The expansion of African higher education has been driven by profitability. As “Africa Rising” becomes a catchphrase, the world might be too optimistic about middle class growth and consumption power of the continent. In reality, the wealth gap has been widening, and the public’s voice has been effectively silenced in Africa, said Adebayo Olukoshi, director of the UN African Institute for Economic Development and Planning.

“Bringing back the public purpose in African higher education and making it central to the definition of mission and goal of the university will enable the university to claim its rightful role and place in…the mobilization of the citizenship, which we require for the renaissance of the continent,” Olukoshi said.

African higher education is in an alarming state. Governments have no specific requirements for university curriculum and graduate qualifications, said Lindela Rowland Ndlovu, vice-chancellor of the National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe.

Olukoshi said he envisioned a pan-African higher education system with a standardized curriculum, adding that this goal would take some time to realize and requires “breaking down barriers to collaboration” that are a legacy of colonialism.

“Re-establishing linkages between African universities must be an important element of the renaissance we seek to create,” he said.