African Higher Education and Industry: What Are the Linkages? AKILAGPA SAWYERR AND BOUBAKAR BARRY
Productive linkages between higher education and industry presuppose the existence of institutions able to prepare skilled technical personnel and to produce and transfer innovative, industry-relevant research and technology. The necessary counterpart is industry hungry for new knowledge and technology and prepared to invest in developing or acquiring it. Weaknesses on both sides are evident in Sub-Saharan Africa. Higher education has suffered from years of neglect and underfunding and is generally considered to be oriented away from science and technology. Although there are signs of a revival, overall, higher education, particularly as regards science and technology research, is not up to the task of lifting African industry to a globally competitive level. On the other side, high-technology industry is largely absent in the region. This paper consequently focuses on small and medium-size industry, which is important for Africa’s immediate future. But given the lack of steady pressure to acquire new knowledge and technology so as to remain competitive, there is little demand from this sector for industry-relevant research by knowledge institutions. Part of the solution to this impasse must lie in a policy framework and material interventions aimed at boosting research capacity and industrial development in priority areas while at the same time providing appropriate bridging mechanisms and supportive fiscal and other incentives. There is also scope for regional and continental collaboration to harvest economies of scale. Massive transformations in global communication, production and management in the second half of the twentieth century placed knowledge and its applications at the center of economic and social development in all parts of the world by Akilagpa Sawyerr is a former secretary-general of the Association of African Universities. Boubakar Barry is coordinator of the Research and Education Networking Unit, Association of African Universities. Ransford Bekoe, assistant project officer in the Office of the Secretary-General, Association of African Universities, provided substantial research support in the preparation of this paper. Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics 2009, Global Š 2010 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank
275