African universities need to work more closely together and diversify their funding streams as governments worldwide pull global funding to focus on domestic priorities, a summit has heard.

John Machayi, president of the Association of African Higher Education Financing Agencies, said that “geopolitical shifts” are having a “negative effect” on African universities, with more “instability coming due to wars”.

There has been a reduction in international grants owing to “economic downturns affecting government funding”, Machayi told Times Higher Education’s Africa Summit in Nairobi.

This has been seen in the decline in government scholarships, he said, citing the UK government’s cuts to its Commonwealth Scholarships Scheme as an example.

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He said there are also a lot of African students currently studying in Iran, and countries should learn lessons following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and “start preparing for their integration” as they return to their home countries.

African universities should look to increase their partnerships within Africa amid these shifts and economic downturns, he said, to diversify their revenue.

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“There are quite a lot of things we need to put in place that also require money by ensuring that we identify alternative funding streams and also sources of scholarships within Africa…I think it’s one of the contingent routes that we should be exploring, instead of relying on the Commonwealth Scholarship Council or the Chinese Scholarship Council. We need to start supporting each other.”

Tom Porter, the East Africa lead and country director for Kenya at the British Council, said that the UK has “never been less relevant and never had less money”. 

He said it was “important” for universities to understand this, and that conversations were very different pre-Brexit and the Covid pandemic.

“We are in a situation where there is a much bigger, faster turn to domestic agendas than ever seen before. So the UK government’s number one project is growth for the UK,” Porter said.

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Funding challenges caused by geopolitical events mean there is a danger that relationships with African universities become exploitative and based on “extraction”, where international institutions take what they want without giving much back, he said. 

“There is a desire for the UK to make the most out of its relationships with the outside world,” Porter said, but noted that its funding comes from UK taxpayers. “I want to see Kenya improve, but I [would] also like the UK to learn from the experience of working with Kenya.”

But, Porter noted, African universities and countries like the UK are “equal partners”, and he believed that the responsibility lies with UK institutions to ensure this. 

“Being neutral is probably not enough if you want to change where we’re at. There is a challenge to us to think about, as arms of soft power or as universities in the UK, are we happy with the status quo? If so, OK, we carry on doing what we’re doing. If not, what is the change we need to make? Change isn’t about talking. It’s about listening.”

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juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com