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The Role of Higher Education in Capacity Building in Developing Countries May 3-4, Helsinki Workshop 2 Local needs meeting interests in the field of research and educational cooperation A Finnish View Seppo Hölttä Professor of HE Administration and Finance Higher Education Group School of Mangement, University of Tampere Seppo.holtta@uta.fi
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Changes in the Role of Universities and HE in the Development of Africa
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Universities are separated from society It has been true, but … Universities are looking for new social roles – Third task – Organisational, management and leadership development – Diversification of funding base Challenge – role of universities in global market economy – Africa is the continent of the future – Importance of public private partnership
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HE sectors are elite sectors favouring elite classes in societies It has been true, but … mass HE emerging Policy shift – national policies and supra-national policies, e.g. ARUSHA convention Expansion of public sectors and the emergence of private sectors Emerging policy – role of HE in poverty reduction Universities do have capacities to reduce poverty
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The rate of return to the investment in HE is lower than that of investments in basic and vocational education This is true, but … The increase of incomes due to education is a limited measure for assessing the contribution of HE in development The indirect impacts may even exceed the direct impacts (measured by rate of return) – Other segments of public sectors like lower levels of education, health care, environment, … – Industrial development (in knowledge based production)
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Domination of teaching function and poor state of research in African universities This is true, but … – It is understandable because of the expansion of HE and continuous funding crises – The importance of research is well understood and policies have been developed – National and supra-national efforts have been created to establish centres of excellence – e.g. Pan African University – Growing pool of research expertise in African universities
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Universities are Lacking Capacity for Change It is true, universities are still suffering from the colonial models of HE, but … – Importance of capacity building is well understood by African universities, governments and supra- national organisations Academic capacity – research and curriculum development Management and leadership capacity e.g. Pan African Institute for University Governance
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Challenges for the Cooperation between African and Finnish Universities
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From individual based research cooperation towards … – Institutionalised research programmes – Importance of the African relevance of Research From unorganised student mobility towards … – Joint academic programmes – Programme based mobility of students and teachers – Double and joint degrees – Using EU funding instruments (Erasmus Mundus) and combining national funding programmes globally (China and India)
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Understanding the capacity of PhD cooperation in the development of universities – Training the new generation of experts with global views to Africa – Supporting the career developments of these experts – Using the expertise of African PhD graduates in Finnish based collaboration programmes From Finnish priorities to African priorities – Field and country priorities now but support of national policies – Integration to African based policies and programmes, e.g. PAU, AAU, IPAGU From bilateral cooperation to multilateral cooperation – Among African countries – European cooperation (EU and national funding instruments) – Cooperation with growing economies (China and India)
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From Finnish ownership of the programmes to shared and African ownership – E.g. African curricula and African accreditation of programmes – Support to African policy programmes From pure academic cooperation to Institutional Partnership and Institutional Capacity Building – Joint programmes – Professional training – Management and leadership capacity to support changes of African universities Management and leadersrhip training – Support to the integration of universities to societies – Cooperation of universities with industries (African and Finnish) From the traditional development cooperation model towards the contexts of the global market economy
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