Studying Higher Education in Multi-Faceted Africa: For a Scientific Analysis of Sector Reforms

Students across the continent, for example in South Africa since 2015, have mobilised to protest the increase in university tuition fees, condemn the marketisation of education, and question the content and purpose of higher education (Botiveau 2016). In the Francophone countries of Africa, academic staff have attended a great many workshops aiming to reconfigure their study programmes according to the Licence (Bachelor)-Master-Doctorate (LMD) model, a process which entails calculating the number of course units that are required to validate a student's programme of study. The media and local officials continue to rush to cover events such as the creation of a brand-new private institution funded by a local entrepreneur, the opening of a prestigious European or American university branch campus, or the laying of a foundation stone for a new lecture theatre funded by a foreign government. Everywhere, policies for evaluation, standardisation, and programme accreditation are being implemented. Across the continent, universities are proliferating and new governments question the legitimacy of those set up by their predecessors, as was the case in Benin following the 2016 presidential elections.