Higher Education

CAPACITY BUILDING IN RESEARCH

Issues and justification for the project

Research has always played a crucial part in the mission defined by African universities. Indeed, it is research that sets apart universities from other higher education institutes.

Research plays a major role in the development of a university. The amount and the standard of research carried out are the main criteria considered when reviewing an application for promotion submitted by a lecturer or a researcher.

Research also plays an important role in fulfilling the mission set out by the university in relation to services to the community. In this respect, the World Conference on Higher Education held in October 1998 in Paris reasserted "the need to promote, create and spread knowledge acquired through research, in order to help society achieve its own cultural, economic and social development".

The globalization of the economy and commerce offers African countries huge opportunities to connect to international telecommunication networks in order to fully benefit from the knowledge and technology available in developed countries. However, the low research capabilities and the persistent brain drain phenomenon may threaten these opportunities.

Faced with this situation, it is fair to say that African universities should give the utmost priority to the development of research, namely in order to reinforce the capacities of production, spread and application to the development process of new knowledge and discoveries.

On this subject, the World Conference on Higher Education stated that in a society built upon knowledge "research must be considered an essential component of cultural and socio-economic development"

Unfortunately, for more than two decades, research in African universities has been faced with several challenges and problems, mainly the scarcity of financial resources, the lack of relevance and quality in research, the deterioration of equipment and research laboratories, the absence or withdrawal of programmes of initial and on-the-job training in research and the insufficient access potential to new technologies of information and communication.

The urgent need to reverse the process of degradation of African universities and to reinforce their capabilities in the area of research requires a major contribution in bilateral and international co-operation.

Bilateral and international co-operation agencies are more prepared than ever today to contribute to the reinforcement of research in African universities.

Indeed, at the World Conference on Higher Education, bilateral and international co-operation agencies committed to "bringing support to projects of co-operation with universities, on a solidarity and partnership basis, namely with the view to filling the gap between rich and poor countries in the crucial areas of the production and application of knowledge".

Conceived in the framework of the follow-up to the World Conference on Higher Education, the aim of this project is to contribute to the strengthening of the research capacities of African universities by holding national and/or regional networks for the training of teachers/researchers in conceiving and developing the documents used to attract necessary funds for university research.

Objectives

The project has set the following objectives:

Overall objective

• Reinforcing the capacities of African universities in the area of research

Specific objectives

• Increasing the expertise of teachers/researchers in conceiving and formulating projects aimed at attracting the funds required for the development of university research
• Reinforcing collaboration between bilateral and international cooperation agencies and co-ordinating their actions aimed at developing research in African universities.

Participants

The project targets all teaching staff who do not yet have the title of Professor.

Participants will be selected in such a way as to cover fundamental and applied research across all areas of competence in African universities, namely science and technology, law and social sciences, medicine, arts and teaching.

The organisation of workshops and the co-ordination of the project

The project intends to attract as much financial and intellectual participation as possible from all bilateral and international co-operation agencies based in the various countries or sub-regions where the training workshops will take place.

The general coordination of the project will be carried out by the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in Africa (BREDA), the only UNESCO bureau in Africa whose area of competence covers higher education, university research and the training of teachers.

Methodology

The methodology suggested for the realization of the workshop includes three main components, namely:

• Each bilateral and international co-operation agency contributing to the workshop will make a presentation on its funding policy for research, including its areas of interest and the requirements for outlining projects. The presentation will be supoprted by a detailed analysis of a few projects that earned funding from the agency.
• On the basis of the information contained in the presentations of the various agencies, a group of resource people will give detailed presentations on the conception and the formulation of projects aimed at attracting funds for university research.
• Part of the workshop will be dedicated to presenting and discussing the projects prepared by the participants.

The workshop will focus on a proactive approach through intensive interaction between participants in the form of group exercises, symposia, round tables, case studies and practical work.

Expected outcome

The workshop should make it possible to reach the following results:

• The formation of a critical mass of trainers
• The reinforcement of the collaboration between the various bilateral and international co-operation agencies.
• The production of guidelines on ways to attract the financial resources to be channeled into research.