There have been institutions of higher learning for centuries in Africa but the phenomenal growth has taken place in the last fifty years, first in the later days of colonialism and then in the heady days of independence and commodity boom. Without them there would have been no development. The three highly distinguished authors have written the first comprehensive assessment of universities and higher education in Africa south of the Sahara. As can be seen from their biographies they draw on experience from both francophone and anglophone Africa and from teaching both in the sciences and the arts.

The treasure of the Black experience at a Historically Black College/University (HBCU) is that it offers a personal and intimate experience rooted in Black heritage that cannot be found at other institutions. On campus, face-to-face instruction and activities focused on addressing issues that plague the Black community are paramount. This provides students with small classroom environments and the personal support from administrators, faculty, and staff. In March 2020, the Black experience was interrupted when a global pandemic forced governors to declare states of emergencies and mandate stay-at-home orders. The stay-at-home orders forced universities to transition into fully remote environments. Doing so heightened an array of emotions compounded by the reality of previously recognized disparities in resources and funding amongst higher education institutions. As a result of this abrupt transformation, the HBCU experience was impacted by positive and negative implications for Black people at the campus, local, state, and national levels. The Black Experience and Navigating Higher Education Through a Virtual World explores the reality of the Black experience from various perspectives involving higher education institutions with a focus on HBCUs. The book provides an overview and analysis of a virtual experience that goes beyond the day-to-day technological implications and exposes innovative ideas and ways of navigating students and faculty through a remote world. It focuses on heightening the awareness of disparities through the Black experience in a virtual environment, provides guidance on transitioning to fully remote environments, examines leadership dynamics in virtual environments, analyzes mental health balance, and examines implications on the digital divide. Covering topics such as online course delivery, self-health, and social justice, this book is essential for graduate students, academicians, diversity officers in the academy, professors, and researchers.

The book is a must read for policy makers, academics, university administrators and post graduate research students in the broad field of education and in higher education studies in particular. The book brings together a wealth of information regarding the imperatives of transformation in Africa’s higher education systems. Not only do some of the chapters provide critical discussion about the conceptualisation of transformation, the majority of the chapters reflect on empirical evidence for transformation in diverse fields of mathematics, science, gender, the training of doctoral students and the governance and management of universities. This central theme of sustainable change and reform runs across the chapters of the book. For students, the book provides exemplars of practical research in higher education. For scholars in higher education and policy makers, specific issues for reform are identified and discussed.

This book examines the role that Africa has played on the world stage, the African Union, the African leaders' efforts to take care of their own problems and lessen their dependence on the United States and European countries.

While there is a wealth of scholarship on Africana Education, no single volume has examined the roles of such important topics as Black Male Identity, Hip Hop Culture, Adult Learners, Leadership at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Critical Black Pedagogy, among others. This book critically examines African Americans in higher education, with an emphasis on the social and philosophical foundations of Africana culture. This is a critical interdisciplinary study, one which explores the collection, interpretation, and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data in the field of higher education. To date, there are not any single-authored or edited collections that attempt to research the logical and conceptual ideas of the disciplinary matrix of Africana social and philosophical foundations of African Americans in higher education. Therefore, this volume provides readers with a compilation of literary, historical, philosophical, and communicative essays that describe and evaluate the Black experience from an Afrocentric perspective for the first time. It is required reading in a wide range of African American Studies courses. Perfect for courses such as: African American Social and Philosophical Foundations | African American Studies | African Nationalist Thought | History of Black Education

The dominant global discourse in higher education now focuses on world-class universities inevitably located predominantly in North America, Europe and, increasingly, East Asia. The rest of the world, including Africa, is left to play catch-up. But that discourse should focus rather on the tensions, even contradictions, between excellence and engagement with which all universities must grapple. Here the African experience has much to offer the high-participation and generously resourced systems of the so-called developed world. This book offers a critical review of that experience, and so makes a major contribution to our understanding of higher education.

In The State and the University Experience in East Africa, Professor Kithinji explores the critical yet unacknowledged role that universities have played in the politics of statehood and nation building. He demonstrate how successive colonial and postcolonial governments have sought to use university education as a means to advance political and economic interests. He seeks to unravel the connection between universities and the state in East Africa, particularly in Kenya. Thorough narrative and analytical history of the policies and politics of university education in the past half-century and more explore the forces that have influenced the development of universities. This study identifies three major policy trends that have shaped university education. Beginning from 1949, when the British colonial government founded Makerere University College in Uganda as the first degree granting institution for East Africa, until 2002, when the second President of Kenya, Daniel arap Moi, retired from office and his Kenya African National Union (KANU) that had ruled since independence in 1963 lost power. By investigating the dynamics that have influenced higher-education policies in Kenya and the wider East African region, this study links the higher education discourse with the state-building narrative and conceives university policies as a product of the forces informing the historical trajectory of Kenya in particular and the wider East African region in general. The State and the University Experience in East Africa will be of great interest to scholars of the African continent, some of whom may be inspired to rewrite the story of tertiary education and state formation in other parts of Africa by an equally meticulous examination of primary sources as demonstrated in this work

Drawing on the South African case, this book looks at shifts in higher education around the world in the last two decades. In South Africa, calls for transformation have been heard in the university since the last days of apartheid. Similar claims for quality higher education to be made available to all have been made across the African continent. In spite of this, inequalities remain and many would argue that these have been exacerbated during the Covid pandemic. Understanding Higher Education responds to these calls by arguing for a social account of teaching and learning by contesting dominant understandings of students as decontextualised learners premised on the idea that the university is a meritocracy. This book tackles the issue of teaching and learning by looking both within and beyond the classroom. It looks at how higher education policies emerged from the notion of the knowledge economy in the newly democratic South Africa, and how national qualification frameworks and other processes brought the country more closely into conversation with the global order. The effects of this on staffing and curriculum structures are considered alongside a proposition for alternative ways of understanding the role of higher education in society.

Around the world, more young people than ever before are attending university. Student numbers in South Africa have doubled since democracy and for many families, higher education is a route to a better future for their children. But alongside the overwhelming demand for higher education, questions about its purposes have intensified. Deliberations about the curriculum, culture and costing of public higher education abound from student activists, academics, parents, civil society and policy-makers. We know, from macro research, that South African graduates generally have good employment prospects. But little is known at a detailed level about how young people actually make use of their university experiences to craft their life courses. And even less is known about what happens to those who drop out. This accessible book brings together the rich life stories of 73 young people, six years after they began their university studies. It traces how going to university influences not only their employment options, but also nurtures the agency needed to chart their own way and to engage critically with the world around them. The book offers deep insights into the ways in which public higher education is both a private and public good, and it provides significant conclusions pertinent to anyone who works in – and cares about – universities.

There has been a marked increase in the number of immigrants worldwide. However, there is still limited research on immigrant experiences at work, especially the challenges and opportunities they face as they navigate and (re-)establish careers in new host countries. Examining the Career Development Practices and Experiences of Immigrants is a comprehensive reference book that expands the understanding of career development issues faced by immigrants and explores organizational practices relevant to immigrant career development. The book presents research on the challenges, opportunities, and outcomes immigrants face as they navigate new employment and career landscapes. With coverage of such themes as career experience, career identities, and occupational downgrading, this book offers an essential reference source for managers, executives, policymakers, academicians, researchers, and students.