University community engagement in African higher education

As many African countries follow knowledge-intensive economic and social growth, the university's role becomes critical. The importance of universities on the African continent cannot be underestimated. This, however, brings with it many challenges relating to quality, access and equity of education. Many universities focus on specific issues, as many problems cannot be met simultaneously. In doing so, certain logic, often social, economic and political, plays a role in how universities respond to circumstances within and outside the institution.

My PhD journey started with wondering what the actual contribution of universities in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in the development of ordinary people is. The interest was partly triggered by a publication I coordinated at The University of Groningen, The Netherlands, in 2015 on Education for Social Inclusion. Most SSA countries consistently scored low on the Human Development Index (HDI) since its introduction in 1990. Both the 2000 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) played a part in my journey to understanding in which circumstances universities in SSA operate and how they can engage their communities for development. Out of interest and trying to find out how poverty can be eradicated, I wanted to understand sub-Sahara African universities' contribution to Africa's quest for poverty eradication through community engagement.

Universities are complex institutions that serve multiple constituencies with varied salience. Universities also respond to and are shaped by the logic of the time; thus, their response to communities cannot be detached from this logic. This thesis looks at the logic behind community engagement in SSA. The starting point is that universities, often through individual staff, collaborate with and participate in community activities. However, what is little known is the logic behind driving these engagement activities. To understand this, an Institutional Logic Perspective, which is part of the Institutional Theory, was used as a lens through which data was seen and analysed.

Results show that community engagement in the cases studied starts as a call to action by individual university staff with an affinity with the issue of social concern. The institutionalisation of the engagement often takes place later. The reason is that universities deal with different stakeholders with different demands. Funding and political power enable and hinder community engagement in the cases studied. The findings in this research can help SSA higher education rethink its strategies for contributing to society by embracing different logic. The institutionalisation of community engagement could also be made faster, and rewarding such initiatives may enrich scholarship.