Seeking African symbiosis

In 2012, Association of African Universities (AAU) commissioned a research titled “Strengthening University-Industry Linkages in Africa: A Study of Institutional Capacities and Gaps”. 

This study and the SHESRA project represent one of many steps the AAU is taking to support its members and the higher education community across Africa to strengthen linkages with industries and the productive sector. I hereby present some of the comments from this study.

Higher education institutions are widely recognised as essential contributors to economic development through their role in producing the knowledge, skills, and innovations needed to drive their respective national economies.

There is therefore a need to create a strong interface between this educational sub-sector and the productive sector that requires the skills and knowledge of graduates from universities and other higher education institutions in their enterprises to increase productivity. 

In addition to producing work-ready graduates for the job market, higher education institutions, particularly universities also play a pivotal role in conducting research and incubating scientific and technological innovations that promote real and sustained economic growth and social development. 

Sadly, the skills, knowledge and training that students receive at many African universities do not prepare them adequately to meet the requirements of industries and the job market. 

This mismatch between what students learn and what industries need -coupled with under-training in the critical skills of problem-solving, analytical thinking and communication is blamed, at least in part, on the emerging high graduate unemployment and under-employment many African countries are witnessing.

Most research in Africa is conducted at universities, placing these institutions at the centre of their national innovation systems. Through research and extension services, African universities can play a central role in producing technical solutions to local challenges. 

Yet, across much of Africa, universities have minimal linkages with the productive sector at every level, from big industries to agricultural producers, to medium-and-small scale enterprises. Relatively few African universities manage technology incubators or science parks at their institutions. 

While the results of this study demonstrate that many African universities are or have taken initial steps to strengthen linkages with industries and the productive sector, such efforts need to be scaled-up. 

Since independence, there have been a number of efforts in establishing various bodies which can support industry-university linkages such as Tanzania Industrial Research Development Organisation (TIRDO), Industrial Productivity Innovations (IPI), Bureau of Education Research (BERE) and currently, the University of Dar es Salaam and Commission for Science and Technology have established innovations and business development incubators for young graduates. 

Such incubators have resulted into innovation of IT programmes such as MaxiMalipo which supports financial transactions for various payments of social services.

Sometimes, the biggest problems are centred around the actual match-making process. Universities that are interested in pursuing technology transfer often don’t know where to look for companies that need certain technologies. Also, finding a specific expertise and/or areas of excellence on campus can be a real challenge for companies.

Companies also find it burdensome to have to go back to “square one” for every new project or collaboration – even at the same university.

In the end, despite some challenges, the upside possibilities offer tremendous potential – both for the companies and the universities. For those companies that need help in developing products and/or technologies, they may have to go back to school to find it.

The modality of training at our universities may be an obstacle in taking advantage of university-industry linkages, for example, while in German universities, engineers are educated by senior engineers to be practically employable even before they get their jobs; in Tanzania, universities educate their students to have a broad theoretical knowledge and rely on industries to give them the practical knowledge. Most of our graduates have attractive grades, GPAs and curriculum vitae, but practically, their performance is minimal.

In conclusion, as per AAU’s study report, creating a conducive, enabling environment for supporting linkages between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and the productive sector requires a multidimensional approach that supports interventions beyond those listed in this report. 

The efforts should go hand in hand with parallel efforts at strengthening university research governance and management, science and mathematics education, and graduate training at doctoral degree level. 

Industries need to be brought on board at the inception stage as active partners, while governments need to take responsibility for architecting a national innovation system with appropriate frameworks and policies that govern and provide incentives for university industry interactions. 

University-industry interactions can be in variety of forms such as (a) general support; (b) contract research; (c) research centres and institutes; (d) research consortia; (e) industrial associate/affiliate programmes; (f) new business incubators and research parks; and many more.
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Masozi Nyirenda is a specialist in economics of education, education planning and policy studies. He can be reached through +255754304181 or masozi.nyirenda@gmail.com.