Call to strengthen cooperation between universities in Europe and Africa

The document was launched this week at an event in Brussels, which brought together 150 people with an interest in higher education and the part it can play in Africa’s development. It calls for more sustainable and efficient university partnerships and research collaborations, for example through joint research programmes, and recommends measures to increase the mobility of European students and staff to Africa, and to reduce the brain drain from Africa to Europe.

The paper is based on the outcomes and findings of a two-year European Commission-funded project, led by the European University Association and the Association of African Universities. Among the key recommendations, it states that:

Governments should:

• Prioritise higher education as a part of their development strategies, and invest accordingly;

• Support the Africa-EU strategic partnership as a strategic policy instrument and strengthen role of higher education within it;

• Develop concrete measures to mitigate brain drain, in particular measures to improve the situation of students, academics and institutions rather than simply regulating academic movement, which can potentially limit personal freedom;

• Collect and publicise data on higher education.

Universities in Africa and Europe should:

• Integrate development cooperation into their institution’s overall internationalisation strategy;

• Develop more joint programmes and degrees as a means to strengthen both Europe/Africa and intra-African collaboration;

• Develop strategies to mitigate the risks and impacts of academic brain drain and engage the diaspora.

Development cooperation agencies should:

• Enhance coordination, collaboration and exchange between agencies;

• Develop joint European projects as a means to enhance efficiency and impact;

• Consider reciprocity in student and staff exchange;

• Embed mobility in collaborative frameworks, in order to prevent brain drain;

• Promote and fund mobility within Africa, between African universities.

• Regional and national university associations should

• Enhance understanding and exchange in the area of graduate and doctoral education;

• Establish inter-regional dialogue between university associations and universities to contribute as active stakeholders to the Africa-EU Strategic Partnership.

African Union Commission and European Union Commission should:

• Include a framework for Africa-Europe higher education exchange and collaboration within the Africa-EU Strategic Partnership and promote it extensively to the academic community;

• Support regional higher education integration in Africa through bi-regional university cooperation;

• Establish a platform that facilitates communication, sharing of best practice, identification of synergies and promotion of initiatives

• Base university exchange and cooperation programmes on mutual benefits.

‘Africa-Europe higher education cooperation for development: meeting regional and global challenges’ is available on request or from the EUA website.