scholarly journals Building Dialogue Among Nations Through Educational and Cultural Cooperation: The Case of Burundi and the P.R. China

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-99
Author(s):  
Hermenegilde Rwantabagu
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
National Development ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Higher Education Systems ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Daunting Task ◽  
The 1960S

The aim of the present paper is to highlight the process of educational and cultural cooperative between China and African countries, particularly Burundi, the gap it came to fill and the positive outcomes it has generated. It is essentially based on a review of existing relevant documentation. African Universities were born during a period marked by rapid change as most of the countries of the continent were achieving independent nationhood. In this context, those young institutions were assigned the daunting task of contributing to national development through research activities and by producing competent manpower to help in solving the complex problems facing those societies. To this end, African states have sought to enhance the performance of their higher education systems through cooperation with China an emerging but experienced country. Hence, since the 1960s, China has been granting scholarships and other facilities to prospective African leaders and technocrats to study in different regions of the host country. Within this framework, Burundi has enjoyed cooperation assistance from the P.R. China, in economic, medical, cultural and educational matters since independence. This has helped the country to build the capacity of its education system, particularly higher education. We may conclude by saying that the offering of scholarships, the exchange of scholars, artistic performances on both sides as well as the widening Chinese language teachin programme in schools and universities through the Confucius Institute have gone a long way in promoting intercultural appreciation and understanding between the two countries. In this perspective, there is a need for highlighting the extent to which China-Burundi educational and cultural cooperation has contributed the building of mutual understanding between, the two countries.

Challenges Facing African Universities: Selected Issues

2004 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akilagpa Sawyerr
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Knowledge Society ◽  
University Education ◽  
Strategic Choices ◽  
Education Systems ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Knowledge Resources ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
The Public ◽  
Higher Education Systems

Abstract:With notable exceptions, modern university education in Africa is a phenomenon of the last half century. Universities were established either immediately before or within a decade after political independence in most African countries. Since then, both the number of institutions and enrollment have expanded rapidly and continuously across the continent. The coverage of university education, nevertheless, remains inadequate for the needs of the knowledge society. With the relative decline of state support during the severe economic crisis of the 1980s, Africa's universities suffered substantial deterioration: overcrowding, infrastructure deficiencies, and inadequate access to international knowledge resources. These deficiencies led to problems of access, equity, quality, and relevance, and to an aging faculty. At the same time, higher education systems were complicated by the diversification of categories of student, types of institutions, and the kinds of knowledge demanded. In the resulting situation of institutional complexity and policy dynamism, Africa's universities were compelled to develop strategies for coping and innovation. The result has been a halt in the decline in many instances, and revival and growth in several others. Accompanying these positive results, however, have been new forms of social exclusion as well as a loss of focus on the public purpose of universities as institutions concentrate mainly on increasing institutional incomes and producing graduates for the labor market. To address these and other problems, it is necessary to insist on the irreducible responsibility of the state for the maintenance of the higher education system and the need for a proper focus on the public purposes of higher education. Systems-level policy frameworks need to be negotiated and established to guide the strategic choices that have to be made by all players in the education sector.

scholarly journals Translation as a Provider of Models of Sociological Discourse in Nusantara

2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 263-282
Author(s):  
Brian D. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Science ◽  
National Development ◽  
National Language ◽  
Science Texts ◽  
Brunei Darussalam ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Social Science Education ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Sociological Discourse

Abstract Translation as a Provider of Models of Sociological Discourse in Nusantara — The social sciences have seen rapid growth both as academic subjects and as instruments of national development in the Malay language nations of SE Asia: Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia. The particular nature of social science terminology and discourse has presented special problems for translators of social science texts, who have been at the frontiers of language creation as national language texts have been increasingly used at all levels of education in Indonesia and Malaysia. In Indonesia, where higher education had been Indonesian-medium after independence, the first social science texts to be translated were from Dutch, but, following the departure of the Dutch, extensive American support to social science education by the USA from the 1960s led to a new wave of texts translated from English. In Malaysia the decision to introduce Malay-medium higher education created a need for translations of key texts from English. In Brunei Darussalam, while higher education is English-medium, Malay-medium university students have found it necessary to translate English social science material to succeed in their learning. While the three countries have an agreement to standardise terminology and discourse, social science language has to some extent diverged. Meanwhile a serious shortage of qualified translators has hampered the production of adequate and sufficient translations. This paper discusses (1) the issues of "transparency" and "invisibility" in providing Indonesian and Malay target texts and (2) the feasibility of "domesticating" concepts and methodologies and providing recipient language texts which are usable and developmental.

scholarly journals Higher Education in Portuguese Speaking African Countries

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrício Vitorino Langa
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Cape Verde ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
International Expert ◽  
Education Systems ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Baseline Study ◽  
Higher Education Systems ◽  
Sao Tome And Principe

This publication is the result of a baseline study of the state of the higher education systems in the five Portuguese speaking countries in Africa (PALOP): Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe. The project was undertaken by an African international expert in the field of higher education studies and was fully sponsored and supported by the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA). The report offers a historical overview of the development of higher education in PALOP from colonial times to the present. The main objective of this baseline study is to map the landscape and dynamics of change in the higher education systems of PALOP countries. It focuses on describing the latest developments of trends of expansion, financing, governance and policy reforms closely linked to the development of higher education systems in these countries. Furthermore, the study will facilitate an informed debate and the dissemination of knowledge on the role of higher education for development in Africa.

scholarly journals Vietnamese higher education and the issue of enhancing graduate employability

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
June Tran
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Education Systems ◽  
Higher Education Systems ◽  
Graduate Employability ◽  
Vietnamese Higher Education ◽  
The Way

The rapid change in the graduate labour market in the globalizing era calls for responsiveness from the higher education systems all over the world. Enhancing graduate employability has become a topic of both concern and debate in higher education worldwide. However, the issue is somehow different in Western developed countries and in Eastern developing countries in terms of the way higher education teaching staff perceive the issues, the way universities approach the issues and also the way university practices have been designed to enhance graduate employability. This article aims to illustrate the differences by addressing the issue of enhancing graduate employability in Vietnam compared with that in the literature from developed countries such as US, UK, Australia and New Zealand. It is suggested that while not all academics in Western higher education systems support the idea of accepting enhancing graduate employability as one of the university missions, their teaching practices, in general, support the development of graduate generic attributes, which are claimed to be essential and necessary for graduates to enter the labour market, to succeed at work and in life. By contrast, in the Vietnamese higher education system, where the main mission for universities is still limited to producing an educated labour force for the industry, however, the traditional teaching and learning method and the lack of connections between university, research institutions and the internal industry all hinder the effort of the whole system in preparing students with the necessary skills and knowledge required by the contemporary labour market.

scholarly journals Radio as a Tool for National Development

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Ibikunle Olayiwola Ajisafe
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
One Health ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
National Development ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Community Radio ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Government

The significant role radio plays in the development of any nation can never be overemphasized, most especially community radio. The general opinion about community radio is favorable; it has been identified as a powerful medium capable of promoting rapid change among various communities across the globe. Community radio is a cost-effective, non-formal learning medium, which can be used to reach many hitherto unreached and uneducated across vast geographic distances, communities in the most remote and isolated regions. CR has also been identified as vital in the delivery of vital developmental information to all members of the community irrespective of age, gender, or beliefs. Uninformed individuals are subjected to the tyranny of those who are informed because, without a voice, they cannot participate in the management of their land, their region, and their country, until they can understand precisely what the issues are and how they could contribute their quota to the attainment of the set goals in their environment. The transition of the "voiceless" to alert and active communities, most especially as one-health informed persons begins with community enlightenment of the benefits of both sustainable development goals and the one health policy. Community radio is identified in this work as vital to disseminating information on health and SDGs education, most especially in African communities where oral customs and indigenous languages are still distinct signatures. The work will examine the importance of community radio which its credo is information and education and the valuable contribution it can give to the attainment of sustainable development goals and its vital place in the promotion of animal-human health in African hard-to-reach communities. It will also serve as a proposal to the government on the need to implement community radio considering its impacts on the health and wellbeing of rural people in other African countries where it is in use.

scholarly journals Can we be all in one?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donato Cutolo ◽  
Maria Rita Tagliaventi ◽  
Giacomo Carli
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Knowledge Transfer ◽  
Research Performance ◽  
National Development ◽  
Education Systems ◽  
Higher Education Systems ◽  
Academic Activities ◽  
Academic Citizenship ◽  
Scientific Collaborations

The pursuit of a high research performance is nowadays shared by academics internationally since it is considered to sustain national development. Generating outstanding research is an effort that can jeopardize the enactment of other academic activities and the attainment of related satisfying goals, though. While the interplay between research and other knowledge transfer activities such as patenting, spin-off creation and consulting, has been widely debated, the influence of research on academic citizenship, i.e., on the service provided by faculty to their institution and to the wider collective, has remained surprisingly in the backward of the reflection on higher education systems. This study analyzes the effect of research performance on academic citizenship in a sample of 216 Italian academics in the field of management. With the exception of research awards and international scientific collaborations, research does not emerge to significantly impact upon academic citizenship, which may account for the scarce attention devoted to this latter. Since service is necessary for all organizations, universities included, to thrive, citizenship needs to be fostered and awarded through appropriate institutional and managerial policies that are here highlighted.

scholarly journals Access To Higher Education For National Development In Nigeria: Distance Education To The Rescue

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-294
Author(s):  
Tewo V. Bakare
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Distance Education ◽  
Adult Education ◽  
National Development ◽  
Access To Higher Education ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Formal Approach ◽  
Education Practice ◽  
Awareness Campaigns ◽  
The Right

The paper examined the place of Distance Education (DE) as a method of Adult Education in Nigeria and its contribution to national development. The paper discussed DE practice and challenges in some African countries and related this to the Nigerian situation. The paper further noted the challenge of the national admission body for regular tertiary institutions with reconciling the ratio of applicants to those admitted. Incidentally, DE, which is originally a form of Adult Education, is fast becoming a replacement for regular higher education. The implication of this on Adult Education practice in Nigeria is that the changes in the demographics of participants in DE, along with other challenges, affect the essence of Adult Education provision, access and its conduct. The paper analyzed the concept of DE and noted that distance education is currently used to replace, instead of support mainstream education in Nigeria by eroding the more desirable non-formal approach. The paper agrees that DE can be used as a tool, per excellence, for human and national development, if practiced in its proper context, and attracts the desired target candidates. Several suggestions were proffered for better conduct of DE, including the use of awareness campaigns to attract the right candidates into DE programs as well as better provision of access to regular education for the youth to stem their influx into DE. The discourse has great implications for lifelong learning, access, national development and adult education practice in Nigeria and globally.

scholarly journals The State of Africa in the Global Political Economy

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Mohammed Seid Ali ◽  
Mengistu Alamineh Mazengia
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
National Development ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Development Policies ◽  
To Come ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
The Cold War

Since the Cold War, at international, regional and domestic levels, there have been various dynamics which have been significantly impacting Africa's political economy. Taking the major historical developments prior to 1990s as background premises, this article intends to critically unveil the existential state (opportunities, challenges and imperatives) of the continent's political economy since the conclusion of the Cold War. Besides, it has to be noted that, except for some minor disparities among African countries, their communalities concerning their political and economic experiences could plausibly take the lion share, which in turn enable a researcher to come up with cogent explanations, evaluations, generalizations and finally conclusive remarks that could logically stand for the entire continent. Given this methodological consideration, in contrast with its successful but short lived historical precedent in the 1960s through deliberately owned national development policy measures by visionary post-independent African leaders, African political economy had been dragged into incommensurable crisis in the 1970s and 1980s. This had been primarily because of the imposition of alien neo-liberal development policies and reforms [1,2, p.4] (Fantu, 2014). Since the late 1990s, however, its overall performance has begun to recover following the demise of Uni-polar power structure for a new multi-polar global arrangement. The deteriorating influence of neo-liberal conditionalities because of national measures, policy independence, and alternative development policies as well as partnership [3,1 p.276]. In spite of its recent commendable signals justifying 'Afro-optimism', the continent's political economy has still been far from structural transformation. Thus, for its positive prospect, the underlying tasks that each African states are expected to undertake and realize are: strong democratic states with visionary political leadership, de-politicized and meritocratic civil service, state-lead or strategically regulated national economy, policy ownership as well as independence, deliberated and strategic integrations with regional and international economies, infrastructure expansion, human recourse development, diversifying development finance and partnership, giving priorities to strategic economic sectors, which could generate fast economic growth, create more job opportunities and could reduce poverty (Fatu, 2016; pp.1278-79).

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document