CONSULTATION DE LA REGION AFRIQUE PREPARATOIRE A LA CONFERENCE MONDIALE SUR L’ENSEIGNEMENT SUPERIEUR

1. Recalling the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 26, of which affirms that, " Everyone has the right to education "... and that " higher education shall be accessible to all, on the basis of mérit ", and further recalling the Convention Against Discrimination in the field of Education, adopted by UNESCO in 1960, which calls on Member States to " make higher education accessible to all, based on individual abilities " ;

3. Adhering to the conclusions and recommendations of the policy paper on Change and Development in Higher Education published by UNESCO in 1995,as well as the major conclusions of the International Commission on Education for the 21^st Century, which stipulate that, " Universities in developing countries have a duty to carry out research that should contribute to solving the most serious problems facing these countries ".

4. Taking into account the desire of the United Nations to improve coordination of the actions of organisations of the United Nations system in order to reinforce their impact on the development of the Africac region, by mobilising every effort(in the same vein as the creation of an Africa Department by UNESCO)and allocating necessary funds for in-depth reform of higher education in Africa.

5. Having taken note of the conclusions of the Priority Africa seminars on Higher Education in Africa (Accra : November 1991 ; Dakar : November 1992, Alexandria : April 1993) summary papers (such as Higher Education in Africa : Trends and Challenges for the 21^st Century : Dakar 1992 and publications like Future Directions for Higher Education in Africa published by BREDA in 1994 and Audience of Africa. Social Development : Priorities for Africa, Final Report (1995) and taken further into account the findings of the Second World Congress on and Education and Informatics " organised by UNESCO in Moscow in July 1996, and other reports by various international and African institutions which have also carried our diagnosis and developped guidelines for action ;

6. Observing that sugnificant but not quite remarkable progress has been made in Africa through the efforts of higher education institutions to wit : progress in implementing democratic structures, improved access to higher education, training of senior management level personnel for the public and the private sectors, development of programmes of African studies, rediscovery and promotion of the historical and cultural heritage, etc. ;

7. Recognising at the same time, the persistence of problems needing urgent solutions (e.g. poverty, hunger, disease, unemployment, illiteracy, the debt, burden, unfavourable trading conditions, inflation, all forms and types of conflicts, environmental degradation, etc.) ;

9.Pointing out that the challenges facing the Africa region and the sweeping changes in society make the structural problems of higher educational institutions all the more critical.

11. Relevance is the number one problem, for, should African higher education institutions and the authorities responsible for them interprete their missions wrongly, they will not be able to take up the above challenges : the institutions could in fact become obstacles to development. First of all, it is imperative that they adapt their missions to the needs and constrainsts of the local, national, regional, and international environments. This is one of those external efficiency indicators by which institutions are judged. This entails links with the " town " : promoters of economic activities and all groups and persons working to ensure the reign of equity and better living conditions for Africans, those engaged in promoting responsible citizenship and ensuring a culture of peace and sustainable human development.

Relevance also requires better articulation with the world of work and with other efforts geared towards improving the contribution of higher education to the entire educational system, especially through teacher training and research in education.

12. Quality is the second area needing thought and action. It is closely linked to the issue of relevance but entails the operationalisation of the envisaged outcomes (a clear definition of goals and objectives) of the inputs the institutions will work with (thus a review of admissions criteria) and the processes and procedures for working with the inputs (the way the management system coordinates structures, resources and the institutional culture to obtain the required products). A policy of total quality can be implemented through comparisons between observed and intendedl outcomes (in terms of quantitave and qualitative internal efficiency) and constant analysis of the sources of dysfunction. This will require a culture of Autonomy for higher education institutions as well as of their consituent units. It will also require careful attention to the problems of students and teachers and solidarity and responsibility towards the institution as a project for promoting local development and for ensuring a take-off for national and regional development. Thus the need for accountability, which is indissociable from the concept of quality.

13. Management and Funding constitute the third major concern. An institution could undertake an indepth analysis on its mission and translate this into product, process and quality indicators. If, however, the institution fails to built quality into its entire modus operandi, and if financial ressources are inadequate, if is likely to achieve very little and so very unlikely to be able to meet the challenges of Africa’s development. We would therefore urge that higher institutions accept the imperative of adopting forward-looking management practices which respond to the needs of the environment, as specified in their missions.

14. Cooperation at the national, regional and international levels is the fourth key issue. Cooperation projects have often been mere juxtaposition of disparate efforts not sufficiently linked to an overall strategic plan, specifying priorities, deadlines and the constraints arising from the relationships between various projects or components of projects. We would expect that the orgnisation of African institutions into cooperative networks, using appropriate products of new technologies, should be a major priority area.

17. We would suggest that Members States create " observatories " to monitor changes in the employment market, of iminent social changes, of new approaches to research and developement-related activities. Such observatories would help the process of developing national educational plans, as data would be made available to institutions of higher learning, to improve their capacity to allign their missions with national priority areas.

18. We would suggest that national education programmes aim at diversification with a greater emphasis on a regionalisation of specific disciplines. This could be a means of getting institutions to serve the specific needs of disadvantages areas and groups. These programmes should target specific needs that will generate employment or create jobs ; training programmes and structures should be flexible in order to adapt rapidily to changing needs. It would also be necessary to develop (in consultation with appropriate stakeholders) a wider variety of short duration programmes.

19. We feel that appropriate steps ought to be taken to convince Member States that investment in institutions of higher education is worthwhile, as long as the institutions are oriented to meet the needs of society. International organisations like UNESCO will have to make strong moves to sensitise top political and financial authorities on this issue.

20. Institutions of higher education should define their mission statements in the form of overall general guidelines. These should be closely linked with the national education programmes and based on a thorough analysis of needs, in cooperation with the institution’s internal and external actors. They should be presented in the form of observable outcomes.

21. It would be more profitable to define educational programmes henceforth in terms of expected outcomes, and not simply in terms of facts to be transmitted and reproduced, or in terms of mere course titles. This will contribute to the evolution of genuine education programmes with special emphasis on analysis of complex situations, teamwork, higher cognitive skills, the inculcation of responsible citizenship and the development of a culture of peace.

22. Institutions of higher education should make special efforts to develop scientific and technological programmes to help meet the demands of the accelerated development of new technologies, especially new information and communication technologies. These programmes should be supported by intensive research activities, from which the critical mass of the expertise needed for the region’s development as it faces the pressures of globalisation. We suggest that institutions already having expertise in these areas create a network, with the assistance of UNESCO and other organisations.

Existing potentials on information and communications technologies should be boosted to give rise to virtual universities, which could considerably improve access, while at the same time providing world-class educational ressources.

23. Higher education institutions should also make special efforts to promote integrated programmes aimed at seeking appropriate solutions to the major problems of the progressive evolution of a culture of peace and promotion of sustainable development oriented towards reducing hunger and protecting the environment. Such programmes should build on the fruits of social research and designed to the promotion of research, the strengthening of expertise and consultancy services.

24. We recommend that research be made to bear a closer relation to the needs of Africain societies, so that basic research can be more closely linked with applied and development-oriented research stressing genune partnerships with public and private institutions and the civil society. This would be one way of ensuring the active involvement of higher institutions in societal development efforts.

25. We recommend that higher degree programmes be organised around a quantitive and qualitative critical mass of committed academics, working together in a qualitatively conducive environment on subjects relevant to Africa’s development. Doctoral training programmes can be restructured using team work or networking strategies.

26. We would like to stress the importance and urgency of carrying out a series of case studies on Africa’s priorities, in which higher education institutions should play an important role. These include : the type of leadership to be promoted, strategic management and planning, systemic interactions between primary, secondary, tertiary and continuing education, revision of programmes of education and training, the relative importance and feasibility of face-to-face and distance teaching programmes, strategies for ensuring improved participation of women in education and in decision making bodies, town and country planning, mesures against the security problems of Africa (such as poverty, displaced populations, the trauma of war...). The Association of African Universities could undertake this task, with the assistance support of UNESCO and the possible collaboration of other organisations working in the field of higher education in Africa.

27.To become more responsive to the needs of society, and in order to acquire greater financial autonomy, we recommend that higher education institutions create structures for the development and management of consultancy activities, which are an essential part of their missions. For this to happen, higher institutions should develop an entrepreneurial spirit as a means of strengthening their service functions which are in themselves complementary to their teaching and research functions.

29. We recommend that each Member State establish a mechanism for evaluating the quality of higher education institutions, building on existing practices in the region. Such a body will be responsible for evaluating training, research and consultancy activities in the light of institutional missions, national education programmes and the needs of changing times. This should be a control rather than a punitive mechanism, and should use a combination of internal and external evaluation strategies.

30. In order to ensure the quality of programmes, institutions of higher education will required to establish minimumm teaching-learning guidelines for each course module. They should explicitly state learners, entry and exist behaviours in terms of skills, values and attitudes, the teaching and evaluation methods, all within a specific time frame. They will constitute a point of reference and a form of moral contract between various internal and external actors.

31. It would be necessary for every institution to develop a data base on the quantitative and qualitative movement of students. This data base should include any information that could be used to evaluate internal (and even external) efficiency, as well as trends in progress or non-progress in terms of the equity of the system. The data base should provide decision-makers at various levels with the information needed for the development of a total quality policy, or with the involvement of all stakeholders.

32. We expect that, with assistance from UNESCO and other regional or international organisations, every higher education institution will establish a teaching-learning resource unit staffed by skilled personnel charged with the task of pedagogical skills develoment and other forms of teaching-support activities.

35. We declare our support for the project on the conditions and status of higher education personnel, recently approved by an international committee of intergovernmental experts and which will be at the 29th general conference of UNESCO (Paris, November 1997).

37. Convinced that research (as a fundamental mission of higher institutions) will need to be reinforced, we call for a substantial increase in the number of academic journals and the implementation of a coherent publications policy at sub-regional and regional levels. UNESCO could call on the organisations which took part in the present Consultation to submit concrete proposals on this issue.

38. Efforts to improve quality in each institution will be facilitated if Member States could develop regional networks for education and training activities as well as for research and consultancy activities. We call on UNESCO to lend its full weight to such network.s.

39. We suggest that, at the regional level, existing institutions and organisations (such as CAMES for example) whose aim is to harmonise qualifications and certification procedures be strengthened, so that the potential for mobility is increased for both students and teachers, in line with the practice in other regions.

40. We suggest that Member States guarantee equal rights to higher education based on ability and aptitude (i.e. merit). Member States should take on principal responsibility for funding for higher education. However, since it will be difficult for Member States to bear the entire financial burden, additional sources should be sought using the political and administrative mechanism of each State, whose sovereignity should be respected. We strongly advise that the economic conditions of families be taken into consideration, and that the only criteria for access or non-access should be merit.

41. To improve efficiency and strengthen the management of higher education institutions, it would be necessary to develop appropriate mechanism for regular dialogue between the institutions and their partners, particularly State structures, without compromising the autonomy of the institutions.

42. It is important to build the habit of forward-looking management and planning into higher education institutions in Africa. This means that appropriate training opportunities should be provided for administrators, whether they occupy a permanent or an elected positions. It also means theat necessary computer database should be developed as soon as possible to ensure high-quality forward-looking management and planning. The institutions should find either within themselves or through cooperation the necessary skills to create, maintain and develop these data banks. UNESCO should seek support from organisations such as the Association of African Universities, the International Institute of Educational Planning, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the Commonwealth Secretariat, etc., in this aspect of its work. The goal is for, African universities could be managed like high-performance service businesses able to play a crucial role in solving the problems besetting the Africa region.

43. We believe quality management is not the sole responsibility of top academic authorities. Each sub-system (faculty, department or other structures) should also take on responsibility for forward-looking management and planning. This means that each unit must clearly define its missions to bring them in line with the overall mission of the institution, translate them into observable indicators, and allocate the resources available in accordance with the mission and with a clear order of priority. They should also prepare regular activity reports, which they should be shared with staff and supervising authorities. This mode of management entails a certain degree of autonomy (thus a margin for manoeuvre) and full commitment to institutional goals. The culture of evaluation and responsibility must therefore be strengthened, or established in those institutions that still pactise the rigid centralisation inherited from certain colonial structures.

44. We feel that, despite the prevailing financial crisis, the management of higher education institutions cannot be reduced to financial management based on purely economic criteria. One should take in account. some criterion of equity (such as women’s or underprivileged persons’ access to higher education) and the criterion of social relevance applied to teaching, research and consultancy activities. We would expect each institution’s activity reports to include actions taken towards this end and the results obtained, in order to promote awareness in the appropriate ministerial authorities and obtain recognition and support for relevant actions.

45. Since WOMEN have a major role to play in the development of the Africa region, we request that international organisations, Member States and higher education institutions develop well-articulated policies, remove gender inequity in education and more importantly promote the advancement of women in the entire society. This should include measures implemented, by the institutions of higher education themselves. We suggest that meaningful affirmative action be taken in all possible directions . Women’s associations and networks should be fully supported. A systematic and coherent policy of gender research and case studies should be implemented and their findings widely publicised and ploughed back into the teaching, management and overall development work of higher education institutions.

46. We recommend that measures be taken to double the number of women (students, teachers and decision-makers) in higher education, within the next ten years. Particular attention should be paid to orienting women towards scientific and technological disciplines.

47. We consider that student involvement in decision-making bodies should be given a considerable boost, with greater attention paid to their needs by taking into consideration students’ perspectives which are often relevant to the analyses of problems and to the search for viable solutions. Student involvement is also equally a means of inculcating the leadership skills needed in after-school life as workers and as citizens.

48. At the regional level, it would be necessary to organise regular meetings under the aegis of organs like the Association of African Universities, for exchanges on problems related to the management and funding of institutions of higher education. These meetings should be used to improve the operation of the institutions themselves and to develop the capacity for meaningful pressure on ministerial authorities in charge of higher education. The authorities should themselves be involved in these meetings.

49. We would suggest that, at the regional level, a student association forum be organised as a means of mobilising students to contribute to current efforts aimed at making higher education institutions more forceful, more active and more efficient partners, in the promotion of sustainable development in Africa. The conclusions of the forum could form Africa’s contribution to the International Students’ Forum to be held in Paris in 1998, as part of the commemoration of the fifteeh anniversary of the Delcation on Human Rights and at the World Conference on Higher Education.

50. We invite existing associations of institutions and of subject specialists as well as national, regional and international organisations to support and co-ordinate actions and projects aimed at establishing or strengthening inter-African and intercontinental networks working to reduce the gap between Africa and other regions by solving key regional development problems. Institutions of higher education should adopt a proactive policy in this connection and invest all their energy into fighting poverty, environmental degradation, discrimination of all kinds, and the ravages of conflicts.

51. We recommend that institutions of higher learning create networks of centres of excellence responding to the most pressing needs of the African continent, in terms of training, research and consultancy. Each institution should focus on an area of expertise in which it is likely to excel, as its contribution to a regional skill-sharing network . Such strategies of solidarity/complementarity could enable Africa to meet some its contemporary challenges.

52. It would be necessary for UNESCO to organise in the near future an exchange and evaluation meeting for all existing networks such as the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs programme, UNISPAR, and the Commonwealth Secretariat. The meeting would promote the sharing of experience, reveal the factors responsible to their relative successes or failures, and co-ordinate and strengthen projects that offer the most viable solution to the problem of the Africa region.

53. The African Regional Convention and the international recommendation on the recognition of studies and diplomas should be strengthened through the promotion of academic and professional mobility of students, and academics. This would support the on-going regional integration process by using culture and education as a basis for political and economic unity. It would be desirable to strengthen associations whose aim is to harmonise the qualification awarded by higher education institutions in Africa (e.g. CAMES). UNESCO should take the lead in mobilising major regional and international organisations to create a region-wide mobility programme for students and academics. This has been done on other regions, one example being RIMA (Réseau International de Mobilité Académique or the International network for academic mobility) established by MERCOSUR.

54. We would further suggest that UNESCO works in concert with bilateral and multilateral co-operation agencies like the Commonwealth Secretariat and AUPELF-UREF, etc., for the early creation of priority area networks. These should include a research network on the use of new information and communications technologies, a network of teaching-learning resource units, a network of research units in education devoted to priority areas for Africa development, which could be grouped under UNESCO Chairs in Education. UNESCO should whenever possible, mobilise resources for co-operation on areas of common concern .

55. To respect the right to cultural diversity, we would urge UNESCO to assist in the creation of a network of lusophone institutions of higher education and to intensify its support to the activities of association of Portuguese and Spanish speaking universities as one other means of reinforcing South-South cooperations. The development of graduate programmes in Portuguese-speaking countries should be supported. Other regional networks could contribute their expertise in this area.

56. It goes without saying that the participation of students, teachers and researchers in the meetings and networks depends on relative ease of procedures for obtaining visas. We urge UNESCO to sensitise its Members States to this particular problem, so that they can simplify existing administrative procedures for obtaining visas.

57. Given these challenges and the expected roles of institutions of higher education, it would be necessary to reinforce the higher education unit of the Regional Office of UNESCO in Dakar (BREDA). The unit should play a more active role in the envisaged regionalisation strategies and also be the key actor in the synergy-building missions described in the above proposals. The Regional Advisory Committee on Co-operation in Education in Africa should include representatives of government organisations and NGOs working in the field of higher education.

58. It is further suggested that, as part of the NGO consultation process, UNESCO/Dakar organise a meeting with the participation of AAU, AUPELF-UREF, ACU, AULP and AIUP, as well as sub-regional organisations and bilateral co-operation and inter-governmental organisations such as CAMES, OAU, ECA, the Commonwealth Secretariat, etc., as a means of facilitating co-ordination into operative action plans as soon as possible.