/ 30 July 2010

A hope for Africa

A Hope For Africa

Over the past decades Africa has lost thousands of its highly skilled people who left to look for new opportunities for further study or work elsewhere in the world.

Although Africans abroad do contribute to their countries’ economies by sending money home and often create job opportunities by starting new businesses on their return, Africa’s research output is still too low.

Why is this and how do we, as a country, and a continent, overcome this? Some of the most pressing reasons are that, in many instances, there are not enough graduate student training facilities and there is a lack of properly trained supervisors.

At my institution, Stellenbosch University (SU), we have set out to address these problems, recruiting students from Africa to study in the leading research fields at the university. We call this initiative the Graduate School, which incorporates the African Doctoral Academy (ADA), initiated by our faculty of arts and social sciences.

The initiative, part of the university’s Hope Project, aims to build a dynamic civil society, focusing African intellectual capacity on uniquely African challenges. It also provides links with the Partnership for Africa’s Next Generation of Academics, a collaborative network consisting of our university and other African universities.

Besides the African brain drain, which in itself is one of the largest issues facing the continent, we have numerous issues to tackle.

If our vision is an Africa free from poverty, where the human dignity of all people is protected, where our social and ecological systems are healthy and where peace, security and democracy are safeguarded, we need to stand together and address these issues head on.

Incidentally, these are some of the critical challenges of the international development agenda (as reflected in the millennium development goals of the United Nations). Universities such as Stellenbosch, as a higher education institution that aims to contribute to society, need to stand up and be counted.

Universities and higher education institutions are not only a critical pillar of human development but also absolutely essential to national, social and economic development. As an institution, we hope to drive social change and act as a knowledge pioneer across the continent, tackling challenges such as healthcare, poverty, environmental sustainability, human rights and security.

Therefore we have aligned our core strengths of research, teaching and community interaction with five key national priorities and international development themes. As a university, we possess the technology, research talent and science that can bring about change in communities.

How simple can it then be to employ these strengths and put them behind human need — a science-for-society approach that would make a real difference in the lives of South Africans and Africans?

The Hope Project encompasses all this. Whether it is a renewable energy supply for the region, food security in Southern Africa, conflict resolution and leadership or rural healthcare and development, we are looking to throw our weight behind the country’s most pressing needs.

And, in partnership with other African universities, we hope to extend these initiatives and improve the lives of citizens across the continent. The Graduate School is just one of the initiatives that form part of the Hope Project.

There are a number of others, such as energy and the environment, geographic information technology and the Africa Centre for HIV/Aids — all contribute to this new approach. But the Graduate School and the ADA are more notable because of their links with other African universities — proof that higher education needs to band together to bring about real change.

In this first phase of the project we have already partnered with the universities of Botswana,
Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Makerere (Uganda) and Malawi and hope to extend this network to others, such as the University of Nairobi, with which SU enjoys a long-standing relationship.

There is no doubt that Africa needs a new generation of scholars to sustain the pool of future academics and harness the intellectual capabilities of Africans to address issues often overlooked by more developed countries. If Africa could develop its academic potential and focus this on human need, can you imagine the possibilities?

At SU we would like to be a builder of hope for the future. But it calls for involvement on a wider scale. It is only with strategic partnerships and investment that we can help shape a better future of our continent.

Professor H Russel Botman is the rector and vice-chancellor of Stellenbosch University and vice-president of the Association of African Universities. The university launched its Hope Project on July 21