The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa
(CODESRIA), with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York is
implementing a new Higher Education Policy Initiative (HEPI). The
initiative aims at engaging academics and stakeholders in higher
education in Africa on issues and policy directions that can secure
greater autonomy for the institutions and, deepen cultures of
accountability and oversight and contribute to ensuring the institutions
focus on their academic roles.
Middle level academics refer to a
cadre of academics who are not directly involved in senior university
management and leadership roles but play an important role in the design
and coordination of academic programmes and teaching at the
departmental and faculty levels. The categories of academics here will
include those with doctoral level qualifications and therefore expected
to provide academic guidance and mentorship, faculty deans and heads of
departments, officials of academic unions and course coordinators. Some
of these academics perform administrative functions as a result of being
appointed and/or elected and therefore serve in both academic and
administrative roles. The cadre therefore remains vital in determining
the academic orientation and administrative culture of their
institutions. Institutions however, often lack formal structures and
processes of inducting this cadre to their academic and administrative
roles. Traditionally, structures and routines that existed in the
institutions provided for informal integration of young academics into
higher academic and administrative roles. The structures operated on the
premise that, in the context of shared governance, it was the
responsibility of academics to lead in matters academic and the
administrative aspects to support the broader academic mission. This
ensured some form of smooth transition regarding who would be considered
for academic and administrative leadership based mainly on academic
seniority, provided for the exercise of the academics’ role in academic
decisions, ensured the protection of legitimate faculty aspirations,
facilitated the implementation and preservation of academic standards,
and promoted the academic welfare of students.
Higher Education in
the continent seems to have overcome much of the crisis it faced in the
1980s and 1990s, and growth in the number of institutions and
enrolments is evident. But the crisis eroded most of the structures such
as strong doctoral and post-doctoral programmes, faculty academic and
administrative cultures and a strong professorial cadre to provide
mentorship and regenerate a new generation of university leaders. This
has on the other hand resulted to scarcity in leadership and governance
skills in most institutions. Junior academics on staff development often
head departments and schools with limited understanding on the nature
of academic leadership required of them.
Studies on the governance
of higher education institutions in the continent have tended to focus
on works of governing councils, Management (vice-chancellor and
deputies), and the intermediary role played by ministries of education.
Even then, these studies have examined leadership in the context of
expanding enrolments and capacity to generate extra financial revenues
and innovations in institutional leadership are often captured in terms
of designing academic programs that attract fee-paying students as an
end. Literature has, for example, documented the ‘capture’ of middle
level academics away from their academic missions and their emergence as
an extension of the university administrative bureaucracy, and a
concentration on revenue generating activities at the expense of
academic engagements.
Missing from the studies is inadequate
acknowledgement of the role that academics that do not hold management
roles play in the day-to-day leadership of the institutions and
especially in shaping the orientation of academic programs. Faculty
members serve in governance organs such as faculty boards and senate,
which besides being advisory organs for management also act as
recruiting grounds for future institutional leadership. Understanding
how faculty members participate in leadership processes, how they engage
and are engaged in several aspects of university leadership will
contribute to an overall understanding of the processes through which
academic and institutional leadership evolves in African universities.
The concern is that with expanding institutions and academic programmes,
universities need strong academic and administrative leadership at the
middle levels to shape their academic missions. Engagement with middle
level academics will certainly contribute to a deeper understanding of
how academic programmes are designed and managed, and how leadership is
organized and exercised. It will also expand the channels that the
university leadership create for faculties and departments to
participate in institutional governance processes.
The purpose of
the proposed institute is to provide middle level academics with the
platform to engage and deepen academic understanding of emerging
cultures in the institutions through which academic and administrative
leadership are nurtured. Proposals submitted under this call are
expected to be theoretically grounded in the area of higher education
leadership and governance, engage with literature on higher education
governance transformations in Africa, especially in the post-1990s and
show an awareness of current debates in higher education leadership in
Africa and the place of leadership in building strong academic
institutions. This call targets academics and institutions in
six Sub-Saharan African countries: Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda,
Tanzania and South Africa.
