Download or read book Democracy and the Discourse on Relevance Within the Academic Profession at Makerere University written by Kronstad Felde and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2021-09-20 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy and the Discourse on Relevance Within the Academic Profession at Makerere University is set against the backdrop of the spread of neoliberal ideas and reforms since the 1980s. While accepting that these ideas are rooted in a longer history, the authors reveal how neoliberalism has transformed the university sector and the academic profession. In particular, they focus on how understandings of what knowledge is relevant, and how this is decided, have changed. Taken as a whole, reforms have sought to reorient universities and academics towards economic development in various ways. Shifts in how institutions and academics achieve recognition and status, combined with the flow of public funds away from the universities and the increasing privatisation of educational services, are steadily downgrading the value of public higher education. As research universities adopt user- and market-oriented operating models, and prioritise the demands of the corporate sector in their research agendas, the sale of intellectual property is increasingly becoming a primary criterion for determining the relevance of academic knowledge. All these changes have largely succeeded in transforming the discourse around the role of the academic profession in society. In this context, Makerere University in Uganda has been lauded as having successfully achieved transformation. However, far from highlighting the allegedly positive outcomes of this reform, this book provides worrying insights into the dissolution of Ugandas academic culture. Drawing on interviews with over ninety academics at Makerere University, from deans to doctoral students, the authors provide first-hand accounts of the pressures and problems the reforms have created. Disempowered, overworked and under-resourced, many academics are forced to take on consultancy work to make ends meet. The evidence presented here stands in stark in contrast to the successes claimed by the university. However, as the authors also show, local resistance to the neoliberal model is rising, as academics begin to collaborate to regain control over what knowledge is considered relevant, and wrestle with deepening democracy. The authors careful expos of how neoliberalism devalues academic knowledge, and the urgency of countering this trend, makes Democracy and the Discourse on Relevance Within the Academic Profession at Makerere University highly relevant for anyone working in higher education or involved in shaping policy for this sector.
Download or read book Democracy and the Discourse on Relevance written by Andrea Kronstad Felde and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy and the Discourse of Relevance is set against the backdrop of the spread of neoliberal ideas and reforms since the 1980s, accepting also that these ideas are rooted in a longer history. It focuses on how neoliberalism has worked to transform the university sector and the academic profession. In particular, it examines how understandings of, and control over, what constitutes relevant knowledge have changed. Taken as a whole, these changes have sought to reorient universities and academics towards economic development in various ways. This includes the installation of strategies for how institutions and academics achieve recognition and status within the academy, the privatisation of educational services and the downgrading of the value of public higher education, as well as a steady shift away from the public funding for universities. Research universities are increasingly adopting a user- and market-oriented model, with an emphasis on meeting corporate demands, the privileging of short-term research, and a strong tendency to view utility, and the potential to sell intellectual property for profit, as primary criteria for determining the relevance of academic knowledge...
Download or read book Decolonising State and Society in Uganda written by Katherine Bruce-Lockhart and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2022-12-13 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Decolonization of knowledge has become a major issue in African Studies in recent years, brought to the fore by social movements such as #RhodesMustFall and #BlackLivesMatter. This timely book explores the politics and disputed character of knowledge production in colonial and postcolonial Uganda, where efforts to generate forms of knowledge and solidarity that transcend colonial epistemologies draw on long histories of resistance and refusal. Bringing together scholars from Africa, Europe and North America, the contributors in this volume analyse how knowledge has been created, mobilized, and contested across a wide range of Ugandan contexts. In so doing, they reveal how Ugandans have built, disputed, and reimagined institutions of authority and knowledge production in ways that disrupt the colonial frames that continue to shape scholarly analyses and state structures. From the politics of language and gender in Bakiga naming practices to ways of knowing among the Acholi, the hampering of critical scholarship by militarism and authoritarianism, and debates over the names of streets, lakes, mountains, and other public spaces, this book shows how scholars and a wide range of Ugandan activists are reimagining the politics of knowledge in Ugandan public life.p by militarism and authoritarianism, and debates over the names of streets, lakes, mountains, and other public spaces, this book shows how scholars and a wide range of Ugandan activists are reimagining the politics of knowledge in Ugandan public life.p by militarism and authoritarianism, and debates over the names of streets, lakes, mountains, and other public spaces, this book shows how scholars and a wide range of Ugandan activists are reimagining the politics of knowledge in Ugandan public life.p by militarism and authoritarianism, and debates over the names of streets, lakes, mountains, and other public spaces, this book shows how scholars and a wide range of Ugandan activists are reimagining the politics of knowledge in Ugandan public life.
Download or read book Symposium on Academic Freedom Research and the Social Responsibility of the Intellectual in Africa The struggle for democracy at Makerere University 1986 1989 an assessment written by and published by . This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Knowledge Production and Contradictory Functions in African Higher Education written by Cloete, Nico and published by African Minds. This book was released on 2015-03-01 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reviews "This volume brings together excellent scholarship and innovative policy discussion to demonstrate the essential role of higher education in the development of Africa and of the world at large. Based on deep knowledge of the university system in several African countries, this book will reshape the debate on development in the global information economy for years to come. It should be mandatory reading for academics, policy-makers and concerned citizens, in Africa and elsewhere.” Manuel Castells, Professor Emeritus, University of California at Berkeley, Laureate of the Holberg Prize 2012 and of the Balzan Prize 2013 "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.” Sir Peter Scott, former editor of Times Higher Education and Professor of Higher Education Studies, University College London, Institute of Education
Download or read book Assessment of Media Development in Uganda written by Nassanga, Goretti Linda and published by UNESCO Publishing. This book was released on 2018-10-29 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Gender Ethnicity and Violence in Kenya s Transitions to Democracy written by Lyn Ossome and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2018-04-02 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Critiquing the valorization of democracy as a means of containing violence and stabilizing political contestation, this book draws links between the democratization process and sexual/gendered violence observed against women during electioneering periods in Kenya. The book shows the contradictory relationship between democracy and gendered violence as being largely influenced in the first instance by the capitalist interests vested in the colonial state and its imperative to exploit laboring women; secondly, in the nature of the postcolonial state and politics largely captured by ethnic, bourgeois class interests; and third, influenced by neoliberal political ideology that has remained largely disarticulated from women's structural positions in Kenyan society. It argues that colonial capitalist interests established certain patterns of gender exploitation that extended into the postcolonial period such that the indigenous bourgeoisie took the form of an ethnicized elite. Ethnicity shaped politics and neoliberal political ideology further blocked women’s integration into politics in substantive ways. It concludes that it is not so much the norms and values of liberal democracy that assist in understanding women’s exclusion, but rather the structural dynamics that have shaped women’s experiences of democratic politics. In this way, gender violence in the context of democratization and electoral violence with its gendered manifestation can be fully understood as deeply embedded in the history of the structural dynamics of colonialism, capitalism, and patriarchalism in Kenya.
Download or read book Innovating University Education written by Ssempebwa, Jude and published by Fountain Publishers. This book was released on 2017-09-26 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Makerere University started in 1922 as a humble technical school enrolling 14 day students of Carpentry, Building and Mechanics. Nine decades later, the University has made giant strides–enrolling over 35,000 students in over 145 study programmes hosted by nine colleges spread across various campuses. As one of the first higher education institutions in East and Central Africa, the university has had to contend with a multiplicity of issues, including relevance, curricula reform, community engagement and graduate employability; access, equity, massification and quality assurance; national politics, regulation, institutional autonomy and academic freedom; funding and financial management; student politics and activism; staff unionisation, management and brain drain; physical resources expansion, utilisation and maintenance; liberalisation, privatisation, commercialisation and internationalisation; Information and Communication Technology (ICT); and institutional leadership and integrity. Today, the University stands out proudly as a hallmark of innovation and excellence in teaching, research and community engagement, notwithstanding the challenges it has experienced over the years. As it celebrates 90 years, the higher education scholarly and policy fraternity take the opportunity to honour and continue the University’s tradition of scholarship and innovation — through contributing ideas for dealing with some of the challenges that the University and similar institutions are contending with. Although studies of Makerere University have been included, it must be understood that this book is not necessarily about the University. Additional studies have been drawn from Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania and other institutions in Uganda.
Download or read book Sharing Knowledge Transforming Societies written by Halvorsen, Tor and published by African Minds. This book was released on 2019-10-22 with total page 612 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In June 2016, the Norwegian Programme for Capacity Development in Higher Education and Research for Development (Norhed) hosted a conference on the theme of ‘knowledge for development’ in an attempt to shift the focus of the programme towards its academic content. This book follows up on that event. The conference highlighted the usefulness of presenting the value of Norhed’s different projects to the world, showing how they improve knowledge and expand access to it through co-operation. A wish for more meta-knowledge was also expressed and this gives rise to the following questions: – Is this way of co-operating contributing to the growth of independent post-colonial knowledge production in the South, based on analyses of local data and experiences in ways that are relevant to our shared future? – Does the growth of academic independence, as well as greater equality, and the ability to develop theories different to those imposed by the better-off parts of the world, give rise to deeper understandings and better explanations? – Does it, at least, spread the ability to translate existing methodologies in ways that add meaning to observations of local context and data, and thus enhance the relevance and influence of the academic profession locally and internationally? This book, in its varied contributions, does not provide definite answers to these questions but it does show that Norhed is a step in the right direction. Norhed is an attempt to fund collaboration within and between higher education institutions. We know that both the uniqueness of this programme, and ideas of how to better utilise the learning and experience emerging from it, call for more elaboration and broader dissemination before we can offer further guidance on how to do things better. This book is a first attempt.
Download or read book Scholars in the Marketplace The Dilemmas of Neo Liberal Reform at Makerere University 1989 2005 written by Mahmood Mamdani and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2007-09-15 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars in the Marketplace is a case study of market-based reforms at Uganda's Makerere University. With the World Bank heralding neoliberal reform at Makerere as the model for the transformation of higher education in Africa, it has implications for the whole continent. At the global level, the Makerere case exemplifies the fate of public universities in a market-oriented and capital friendly era. The Makerere reform began in the 1990s and was based on the premise that higher education is more of a private than a public good. Instead of pitting the public against the private, and the state against the market, this book shifts the terms of the debate toward a third alternative than explores different relations between the two. The book distinguishes between privatisation and commercialisation, two processes that drove the Makerere reform. It argues that whereas privatisation (the entry of privately sponsored students) is compatible with a public university where priorities are publicly set, commercialisation (financial and administrative autonomy for each faculty to design a market-responsive curriculum) inevitably leads to a market determination of priorities in a public university. The book warns against commercialisation of public universities as the subversion of public institutions for private purposes.
Download or read book Student Politics in Africa written by Luescher, Thierry M. and published by African Minds. This book was released on 2016-05-12 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second volume of the African Higher Education Dynamics Series brings together the research of an international network of higher education scholars with interest in higher education and student politics in Africa. Most authors are early career academics who teach and conduct research in universities across the continent, and who came together for a research project and related workshops and a symposium on student representation in African higher education governance. The book includes theoretical chapters on student organising, student activism and representation; chapters on historical and current developments in student politics in Anglophone and Francophone Africa; and in-depth case studies on student representation and activism in a cross-section of universities and countries. The book provides a unique resource for academics, university leaders and student affairs professionals as well as student leaders and policy-makers in Africa and elsewhere.
Download or read book Higher Education in Developing Countries written by Task Force on Higher Education and Society and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the current crisis in higher education in developing countries and outlines a coherent vision of future progress. Authored by a body of experts from 13 countries convened by the World Bank and UNESCO to explore the future of higher education in the developing world.
Download or read book Universities and Economic Development in Africa written by Nico Cloete and published by African Minds. This book was released on 2011 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Universities and economic development in Africa presents the synthesisesand key findings of eight African countries and universities. The analysis and discussions presented in the book draw the following three main conclusions: 1. There is a lack of clarity and agreement (pact) about a development model and the role of higher education in development, at both national and institutional levels. There is, however, an increasing awareness, particularly at government level, of the importance of universities in the global context of the knowledge economy. 2. Research production at the eight African universities is not strong enough to enable them to build on their traditional undergraduate teaching roles and make a sustained contribution to development via new knowledge production. A number of universities have manageable student-staff ratios and adequately qualifi ed staff, but inadequate funds for staff to engage in research. In addition, the incentive regimes do not support knowledge production. 3. In none of the countries in the sample is there a coordinated effort between government, external stakeholders and the university to systematically strengthen the contribution that the university can make to development. While at each of the universities there are exemplary development projects that connect strongly to external stakeholders and strengthen the academic core, the challenge is how to increase the number of these projects. The project on which this report is based forms part of a larger study on Higher Education and Economic Development in Africa, undertaken by the Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network in Africa (HERANA). HERANA is coordinated by the Centre for Higher Education Transformation in South Africa"--Back cover.
Download or read book Guide to Funding for International Foreign Programs written by Sara Wyszomierski and published by . This book was released on 2006-05 with total page 716 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grantmakers featured in this Guide provide funding for international relief, disaster assistance, human rights, civil liberties, community development. conferences, and education. This Guide includes more than 1,400 grantmakers and 9,300 sample grants.
Download or read book ASA News written by and published by African Studies Association. This book was released on 1995 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Democracy in Africa written by Nic Cheeseman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-05-12 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the history of democracy in Africa and explains why the continent's democratic experiments have so often failed, as well as how they could succeed. Nic Cheeseman grapples with some of the most important questions facing Africa and democracy today, including whether international actors should try and promote democracy abroad, how to design political systems that manage ethnic diversity, and why democratic governments often make bad policy decisions. Beginning in the colonial period with the introduction of multi-party elections and ending in 2013 with the collapse of democracy in Mali and South Sudan, the book describes the rise of authoritarian states in the 1970s; the attempts of trade unions and some religious groups to check the abuse of power in the 1980s; the remarkable return of multiparty politics in the 1990s; and finally, the tragic tendency for elections to exacerbate corruption and violence.
Download or read book Advancing the Ugandan Economy written by Ezra Sabiti Suruma and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2014-04-30 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Internal conflicts, dictatorship, and economic disintegration characterized the first twenty-five years of Uganda's independence from British colonial rule, which culminated in the reign of Idi Amin and a violent civil war. The country has since achieved an astounding turnaround of stability and growth. Advancing the Ugandan Economy is a first-hand look at the remarkable policy changes that took place from 1986 to 2012 and their effect in contrast with the turbulent events after independence. Ezra Suruma held several key positions in the Ugandan government during the nation's transition period, including minister of finance. His insightful recounting of those times demonstrates that African countries can achieve economic stability and sustain rapid growth when they meet at least two interdependent conditions: establishing a stable and secure political framework and unleashing entrepreneurialism. Suruma also highlights the strategic areas that still require fundamental reform if Uganda is to become a modern state and shares his vision for the future of his country. Rarely in African history has so much positive political and economic transformation of a country been achieved in such a short time. Suruma's account of the commitment, determination, vision, and dexterity of the Ugandan government holds invaluable lessons in managing the still complex policy challenges facing the African continent.
