2ND CARTA VICE CHANCELLOR'S MEETING CARTA 2ND VICE CHANCELLORS MEETING REPORT | Page 21

© Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) & University of Nairobi (UoN)
of Witwatersrand has for instance identified their alumni all over the world who contribute
towards the institute and part of these monies are channeled to research) and Policies on
overhead charges are also not always implemented; the money could be invested in research.
- Accountability issues – laxity in performance evaluation whether in teaching or research is a
major problem in African Universities. PhD students take too long to graduate coupled with
poor supervision and this undermines the quality of training.
- Leadership and management capacity – there are limited skills in fundraising, research
management, financial management, estates management etc.
Looking ahead
In a bid to find solutions to the challenges facing African universities, the following four main
challenges were the center of focus:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Underfunding by governments
Uncontrolled/rapid expansion of universities (massification)
Internal accountability/governance
Leadership and management capacity
The meeting participants were divided into four groups to come up with solutions to the above
four challenges based on the following points
•
•
•
What are the transformative solutions to each?
What roles do VCs & sector leaders, governments, development partners’ play?
Thoughts on bigger/more immediate challenges.
PLENARY COMMENTS FROM SESSION II DISCUSSIONS
Prof. Adam Mahomed Habib - Vice Chancellor, the University of the Witwatersrand
1.
There are huge challenges being faced alongside the great work African Universities are doing.
The early years of the 60s and 70s were fantastic but then something went wrong in the 80s
and 90s. In the 60s, the research and training capacity was very small. What is needed now is
a highly trained populace; this means that the post-secondary education system must be re-
evaluated. There is also need for a differentiated system with Government involvement and
buy-in. The Government and Universities must therefore maximize on their synergies and
complement each other for the growth of our nations.
2. A number of VCs have made two major initiatives of collaborations such as CARTA and
African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA). It is now time for consortiums such as CARTA
and ARUA to begin talking with each other to avoid replication of effort and instead
complement each other.
3. Underfunding by government is likely to remain with African Universities for a long time.
There is thus the dire need for high-tech systems to fund university education. For example,
South Africa and US have models they implement to fund university education. The US model
(need-blind education) allows students to obtain funding on the basis of their academic
results. Universities should approach development partners to fund research and development
and infrastructure. Creating a research intensive spectrum in the African institutions is therefore
CARTA’s 2 nd Vice Chancellor’s Meeting –Report of meeting proceedings – July 10-11, 2017
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