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mogesdigital
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| Joined: | Wed Oct 8th, 2008 |
| Country: | Ethiopia |
| Posts: | 1 |
| Country: | Ethiopia |
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#1 Posted: Thu Oct 23rd, 2008 08:15 |
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On behalf of the Addis Ababa University I will forward some thoughts of partnership between African and U.S. institutions or Western Countries.
The AU Vision seems complete. The question of connectedness and relevance is the question that challenges the citizenry role of African higher institution of the community not in the community. This means they should give attention to multifaceted development challenges of the community from which they evolve and where they belong. This can be achieved through authentic university community partnership. Communities should be part of their teaching, research and service engagements of higher institutions. Partnership with the community should also be part of the vision/mission of the universities. In the strategic planning of my university, engagement with the community is part of the service component only and I doubt it is connected and relevant to the nearby community.
For higher institutions of Africa to be vibrant in terms of teaching, research and service, they should have acquired liberating or critical consciousness. Institutional capacity development is at stake here. Institutional capacity development in terms of their critical consciousness of African faculties to understand university to university partnership in equal footing, not in terms of finance and personnel support only. The power differential between African and U.S. institutions is apparent in the donor-recipient attitude between the two which put African university dependent forever. The negotiation skill of African universities for clarity of purpose of collaboration, equal accountability for success and failure, transparency of resource use are the issues of universities found in Ethiopia which I can presumably assert the same is true in other parts of Africa too. The eight higher institutions partnership which I am studying now show that partnerships are initiated by US universities and the power is at their hand. The question is how can African universities initiate the partnership by themselves and fight for their equal stake during the process of the partnership in which African institutions to take more responsibility and U. S institutions adopt more of a consulting role?
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kaygemechu
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| Joined: | Sat Nov 1st, 2008 |
| Country: | Ithaca, New York USA |
| Posts: | 1 |
| Country: | USA |
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#2 Posted: Sat Nov 1st, 2008 08:20 |
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My interest in partnerships between African and US Institutions from a disciplinary context arose from sidebar issues telated to my dissertation research in Ethiopia. To my surprise, I was one of the first US students awarded a Fulbright to study in the field of Architecture to Africa (Ethiopia)-not difficult to understand given that most of the mainstream focus in my field is firmly grounded in Europe. However, during my fieldwork, I worked with various urban design professionals and I became curious about their training and background (e.g. undergraduate and graduate education). So, much so that this is my research project in my current position. There are few to no partnerships among US based schools of architecture and urban planning schools--a circumstance in my opinion that is a grave oversight.
I agree that issues of connectedness and relevance are serious questions that need to be addressed, contextually on a case-by-case situation-both within and across countries and partnerships. What may work well for one partnership in the context of participating institutions and local communities may not work well in another--even within the same country. This is especially true in Africa where development challenges are "multifaceted." In theory, communities should be part of teaching, research service engagements, but the interest must run both ways and there must be an overall environment that encourages this type of engagement from a national to a local level. The reality is that many who teach in Ethiopian institutions of higer education, like many of their counterparts in other places are restricted in their research interests, motivation and rewards for this type of engagement are almost none-existent--but still the interest is there if the opportunities arise. But most find their time taken up with the need to diversify their incomes for survival.
Institutional capacity development is at stake--but are the venues and spaces open for it to flurish in a way that meets the needs of citzenry, of those teaching and their research interest? Is it encouraged to develop to its full potential or scripted according to political correctness for safety's sake (e.g. narrow windows of opportunity that require participants to compromise their integrity) or disengage because there are no incentives for participation in the type of teaching, research and authentic community partnerships and service projects that can develop from this model? Even in the US "academic freedom" for this can be curtailed in a variety of circumstances. I know that the research that I did for my dissertation was difficult for a number of my Ethiopian colleagues who did similar research---as was gaining access to relevant information. Major difficulties being the attitudes of those in positions of power to grant access to this information--I doubt that given current issues that I could go back and replicate my own dissertation research with much success. Gaining access often requires choosing safe topics.
Unfortunately, the political contexts for African institutions of higher education do not allow them the space needed to acquire let alone engage openly in the presentation of "liberated or critical consciousnesses." In order for this to happen, these partnerships must take place in the context of US and European institutions of higher education being more willing to approach their governments about making these issues part of the foreign policy agenda and the donor funding agenda.
Though I am not familiar enough with the situation of other countries, I do know of one situation in Ethiopia where an African institution of higher education approached a US institution of higher education and successfully negotiated the partnership on equal footing and according to their needs with the ultimate end goal being for the African institution to take over the entire program. This would be Bahir Dar University and Cornell University's new initiative for a masters program, housed at Bahir Dar which began recently. This example is one model that can provide an answer to your question of "how can African universities initiate the partnership by themselves and fight for their equal stake during the process of the partnership in which African institutions to take more responsibility and U. S institutions adopt more of a consulting role?"
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