The Role of Higher Education in Capacity Building in Developing Countries May 3-4, Helsinki Workshop 2 Local needs meeting interests in the field of research and educational cooperation A Finnish View Seppo Hölttä Professor of HE Administration and Finance Higher Education Group School of Mangement, University of Tampere

Changes in the Role of Universities and HE in the Development of Africa

Universities are separated from society It has been true, but … Universities are looking for new social roles – Third task – Organisational, management and leadership development – Diversification of funding base Challenge – role of universities in global market economy – Africa is the continent of the future – Importance of public private partnership

HE sectors are elite sectors favouring elite classes in societies It has been true, but … mass HE emerging Policy shift – national policies and supra-national policies, e.g. ARUSHA convention Expansion of public sectors and the emergence of private sectors Emerging policy – role of HE in poverty reduction Universities do have capacities to reduce poverty

The rate of return to the investment in HE is lower than that of investments in basic and vocational education This is true, but … The increase of incomes due to education is a limited measure for assessing the contribution of HE in development The indirect impacts may even exceed the direct impacts (measured by rate of return) – Other segments of public sectors like lower levels of education, health care, environment, … – Industrial development (in knowledge based production)

Domination of teaching function and poor state of research in African universities This is true, but … – It is understandable because of the expansion of HE and continuous funding crises – The importance of research is well understood and policies have been developed – National and supra-national efforts have been created to establish centres of excellence – e.g. Pan African University – Growing pool of research expertise in African universities

Universities are Lacking Capacity for Change It is true, universities are still suffering from the colonial models of HE, but … – Importance of capacity building is well understood by African universities, governments and supra- national organisations Academic capacity – research and curriculum development Management and leadership capacity e.g. Pan African Institute for University Governance

Challenges for the Cooperation between African and Finnish Universities

From individual based research cooperation towards … – Institutionalised research programmes – Importance of the African relevance of Research From unorganised student mobility towards … – Joint academic programmes – Programme based mobility of students and teachers – Double and joint degrees – Using EU funding instruments (Erasmus Mundus) and combining national funding programmes globally (China and India)

Understanding the capacity of PhD cooperation in the development of universities – Training the new generation of experts with global views to Africa – Supporting the career developments of these experts – Using the expertise of African PhD graduates in Finnish based collaboration programmes From Finnish priorities to African priorities – Field and country priorities now but support of national policies – Integration to African based policies and programmes, e.g. PAU, AAU, IPAGU From bilateral cooperation to multilateral cooperation – Among African countries – European cooperation (EU and national funding instruments) – Cooperation with growing economies (China and India)

From Finnish ownership of the programmes to shared and African ownership – E.g. African curricula and African accreditation of programmes – Support to African policy programmes From pure academic cooperation to Institutional Partnership and Institutional Capacity Building – Joint programmes – Professional training – Management and leadership capacity to support changes of African universities Management and leadersrhip training – Support to the integration of universities to societies – Cooperation of universities with industries (African and Finnish) From the traditional development cooperation model towards the contexts of the global market economy