On maximising the contribution of African universities to national development

Abstract

The massive investment in university and other forms of tertiary education which however still leaves most African countries well behind the developed ones in the proportion of their population that have access to tertiary education has yielded dividends. For with the professional and qualified people they have been turning out taking over from the colonial administrators and business managers the top and other echelons of the apparatus of the state and the economy, the transition from colonial status to independence has been relatively smooth. And with the state apparatus running smoothly and the rate of economic growth accelerating it seemed that the administrative and organizational infrastructure for a great leap forward in national development and individual well being had been well and truly laid.