Social Science Research Council

The Africa Program was committed to the generation of new knowledge and analysis of African universities operating in difficult political and economic environments. At the same time, the program built partnerships while strengthening regional research capacity on the higher education sector.

With the support of the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations (members of the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa) the Africa Program mobilized a research project on "The Public Roles of African Universities: Higher Education during Socio-Political Transitions." Developed in collaboration with the Research Program of the Association of African Universities, the project addressed the intersection of African universities with the public sphere and the broader socio-political context in the nations in which they are located. Through a set of case studies and more general work on the region, these connections were explored in different kinds of transitional contexts: public universities in post-conflict transitions, conditions of state withdrawal, democratization, and newly-earned national independence. Among other goals, the project intended to capture, in a comparative perspective, 1) the ways in which these contexts affect the functioning, internal dynamics and social position of public universities and 2) the way in which these institutions impact upon the broader social and political transitions in their societies.

Four case studies were conducted by teams of African social scientists working with a Program Advisory Group. Case studies included:

An overview paper for the project was written by Ebrima Sall, Yann Lebeau and Ron Kassimr, a version of which has been published in the inaugural issue of the Journal of Higher Education in Africa 1, 1, 2003.