Public-Private Partnership, Regional/International Cooperation, and the Role of the Diaspora in African Higher

Abstract

A public–private partnership as a cooperative arrangement between one or more public and private sectors, typically of a long-term nature have been used by different governments throughout history. The public-private partnership has a significant impact on the cooperation of higher education. The regional and international cooperation and Diaspora‘s engagement in higher education have a great role in African higher education. Internationally, UNESCO has played a catalytic role in developing an avenue for public-private partnerships in order to help meet the needs of the countries to achieve standard of quality, accessibility and affordability of higher education. In Africa, African Union is expected to act and work on higher education at regional level. However, the past few decades has seen a clear trend towards governments across the globe making greater use of various public-private partnership arrangements. There is ample evidence to show that the right to education is indeed almost a Constitutional policy issue under different countries policy framework and was motivated by cooperation of different stakeholders in higher education. However, there might be a tension between the international organizational type of cooperation and regional or national cooperation framework in Africa. But by and large, the major cooperation‘s for higher education in Africa have evinced a strong desire to conform to international goals and visions on global higher education. The UNESCO Communities public framework for partnership with the private sector in higher education, can serve as opportunities for international and regional Cooperation‘s including Africa. One can find that public-private partnerships in higher education in Africa have failed for various causes like lack of flexibility between the partners, priority focus vs. profit motives, accountability, and conflict of interest in the area and as stronger cause, lack of attention to provide possible and careful solution to the existing regional and international cooperation problems in higher education. Therefore, public-private partnerships, regional and international cooperation‘s and Diasporas are expected to play an increasingly important role in the higher education in Africa for all drive, creating an alternative source of funding for the education and making more technical assistance available. The paper explores the implications of this cooperation in African higher education.