Higher Education Leadership in Africa: A case book

Higher education leaders throughout Africa recognise food management and leadership as essential foundations in the effort to revitalise their institutions, and to make them more responsive and relevant to the development of their countries. The need for good management has become even more critical as higher education institutions in Africa find themselves under increasing pressure to meet the expanding demand for higher education and to achieve more with less resources. The developments pose a serious challenge to the leadership of higher education institutions and, consequently, to the nature of leadership training for senior higher education managers. It was in response to these challenges that the Association of African Universities (AAU) initiated the Senior University Management Workshop (SUMA), with the broad objective of objective of enabling university leaders and academics in senior executive positions in institutions of higher learning in Africa, to increase their understanding of the issues and problems related to the changing environment of higher education in the continent, and to strengthen their management and administrative capabilities. Against this background highly successful SUMA workshops have been held by the AAU, in collaboration with the Centre for Higher Education research and Development of the University of Manitoba, Canada, in Harare (1991), Bujumbura (1992), Arusha (1994), Abidjan (1995) Cape Town (1997 and Abuja (1999). An important and appealing feature of SUMA workshops has bee the use of the case method as an instructional tool, which enables dialogue, cross-pollination of ideas, and a learning process deeply rooted in actual successes and common problems encountered by the workshop participants themselves, to take place. This collection of cases represents the first synthesis of the large body of information accumulated from past SUMA workshops and other relevant materials. The cases - with their origins rooted in the conditions and actual experiences of African universities - are a rich menu which will challenge the intellectual appetite of any discerning leader of a higher education institution in Africa or elsewhere. Written with the insightful subtlety of very experienced university leaders, they will lead those who use them for discussion and reflection to surprising conclusions. In this sense the work is seminal and is a tribute to the resource persons, vice-chancellors, case writers and participants who attended the workshop. It also constitutes an indispensable reference material for persons who will be participating in future SUMA workshops in Africa. University leaders and other persons who are interested in higher education leadership should also find this book useful.