Africa’s higher education system is facing significant challenges, and university leaders are gathering to discuss these issues. In Nigeria, vice-chancellors met in August to discuss topics such as governance, institutional autonomy, and sustainable funding. Similarly, in Ghana, the inaugural Higher Education Summit focused on sustainable financing for the university system. In Kenya, vice-chancellors gathered to shape the country’s emerging competency-based university education framework.
These developments reveal a larger issue with the changing nature of African higher education and its leadership. The biggest challenges facing universities are system problems, such as financing, artificial intelligence, and graduate employability, rather than institutional problems.
System-Level Challenges
These problems require a collective response from universities, governments, and industries. However, the current leadership structure in African universities is largely institutional and hierarchical, with individual vice-chancellors and presidents holding significant responsibility.
The success of university leaders is often judged by what happens within their own institutions, such as improving rankings, increasing research output, and balancing budgets. While these are important metrics, they are no longer sufficient to address the system-level challenges facing African higher education.
Africa cannot meet system-level problems with institution-level leadership. The problems are horizontal, but the leadership remains vertical. This mismatch matters, as university leaders need to become coalition builders, public intellectuals, and regional actors to address these challenges.
Distributed Leadership
Leadership needs to become more distributed throughout universities, with academics, professional staff, students, and external partners holding different forms of expertise. Complex problems are rarely solved by the person with the highest title, but rather by bringing together people with the necessary knowledge and perspective.
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Participative leadership is inclusive and enables contributions from all, regardless of demographics. This requires a move away from cultures where proximity to power determines whose voice carries weight. The future university needs flatter, more collaborative, and more inclusive leadership structures, where authority can move towards expertise rather than expertise continually having to move upwards towards authority.
The shift required is from competitive leadership to collaborative leadership, from managerial leadership to intellectual leadership, and from institutional success to system success. This also requires a different conception of power, where leadership is not about accumulating authority, but about creating conditions for people to think, question, and contribute.
A recent study examining governance, autonomy, and academic freedom in African higher education identified government interference, limitations on administrative autonomy, and the influence of external funders as important threats to academic freedom. This highlights the need for university leaders to maintain productive relationships with governments while protecting institutional autonomy.
The creation of the Regional AI Network of Universities by the Inter-University Council for East Africa is a significant step towards addressing the challenges posed by artificial intelligence. Issues such as African data, shared standards, assessment integrity, and intellectual property require networks of universities, governments, regulators, technology experts, academics, and students to collaborate and develop shared responses.
University leaders must consider who is setting the research agenda and what problems receive funding. They must consider the implications of their decisions on the broader higher education system and work towards developing a more collaborative and inclusive approach to leadership. The future of African higher education depends on it, and the need for system-level leadership is becoming increasingly clear, with the higher education system facing numerous challenges that require a collective response.
Collaborative Leadership
Ultimately, the success of African higher education will depend on the ability of university leaders to work together and develop collaborative solutions to the challenges they face. The creation of networks such as the Regional AI Network of Universities is a step in the right direction, and it is up to university leaders to build on this momentum. In July, the Inter-University Council for East Africa launched a new strategic plan for 2026-31.
