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The Review of Higher Education 27.4 (2004) 585-586



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Damtew Teferra and Philip G. Altbach (Eds.). African Higher Education: An International Reference Handbook. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003. 864 pp. Cloth: $89.95. ISBN: 0-2533-4186-8.

Last summer I had the opportunity to visit Ghana, on Africa's west coast. In addition to enjoying its many cultural and natural beauties, I spent a significant portion of my time on university campuses talking with students, faculty, and administrators about higher education systems in Africa and making comparisons to those in the United States. From those conversations, I quickly realized that African higher education systems are terribly underdeveloped and that the doctrine of U.S. higher education is not necessarily applicable. Additionally, any number of cultural and historical factors must be taken into consideration for understanding the scope of African higher education, its potential, and its relationship to a country's well-being.

After exchanging thoughts and ideas with my colleagues in Ghana and the United States, I drew three tentative conclusions: (a) higher education in Africa is essential to the progress of the region, (b) governance systems are key for institutional effectiveness, and (c) literature about higher education in African is dreadfully inadequate. In response to the lack of literature and our limited understanding, Damtew Teferra and Philip Altbach have compiled the single most comprehensive handbook of research on African higher education.

The book is divided into three parts. Part 1, with 13 chapters, discusses trends that affect higher education across the continent. While discussing issues of access, finance, governance, or gender diversity, the authors also offer many comparative facts which help American or European readers situate higher education in Africa. For example, Teferra and Altbach point out that "Africa, a continent with fifty-four countries, has no more than 300 institutions that fit the definition of university" (p. 3).

Part 2 is comprised of 52 chapters that review the state of higher education in single countries from Algeria to Zimbabwe. Due to the great diversity among African countries, the chapters are not exactly parallel. The chapter on South Africa, for instance, is about 17 pages long while the chapter on Niger is barely five. Still, they generally attempt to provide an overview of higher education in each country by using a similar format: the history of higher education, finance and governance structures, enrollment trends, and program/degree offerings.

Part 3 includes a comprehensive bibliography (914 items) and a list of dissertations (301 items) on African higher education organized by country and by theme.

Many scholars, including several across the continent of Africa, agree that the African university is essential for the establishment of other social institutions, i.e, politics, industry, and health care. In America, the effects of higher education systems on society constitute only a fraction of our discussion, yet in Africa it is a central concern—hence the significance of Teferra and Altbach's contribution. Prior to this book's publication, one would have been hard pressed to find a collection of information on higher education institutions covering the continent of Africa. The Partnership for Higher Education in Africa founded in 2000 represents a combined initiative involving four major foundations. In 2003 it issued a series of case studies on higher education in three African countries (Tanzania, Mozambique, and Uganda) which I considered a great contribution (Mario, Fry, Levey, & Chilundo, 2003; Mkude, Cooksey, & Levey, 2003; Musisi & Muwanga, 2003). The fact that Teferra and Altbach's collection includes chapters on more than 50 countries and a comprehensive bibliography makes the book exceedingly useful.

The text's best feature is that it reviews many factors outside of the academic enterprise that influence higher education in Africa. For example, many of the chapters appraise political history, economic crises, challenges with primary education, or language barriers in relationship to higher education. The AIDS pandemic affecting some African countries creates significant challenges for sustaining infrastructure and human capital. The most critical factor in relationship to any social institution in African countries is the impact of colonialism. Ghana, for...

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