Inequality and African Universities: Challenges and Pathways to Change

African higher education holds immense promise as the article by UCT on “Inequality and African Universities: Challenges and Pathways to Change” by Stephen Momanyi, Annika Surmeier, David Littlewood, and Quinton Apollis, explains both the barriers and the breakthroughs.
UCT Thought Leadership

The authors show how colonial legacies, resource constraints, and global academic hierarchies still shape who gets to learn, teach, and be heard – yet they highlight growing, African-led efforts to decolonise curricula, strengthen research capacity, and build fairer partnerships. The spirit is hopeful: universities can be engines of inclusion and leadership if we align mindset, money, and methods with Africa’s own priorities. 

First, the article traces how colonial histories still influence today’s universities – what gets taught, whose ideas count, and who belongs. Western theories and methods are still privileged, while African knowledge traditions are underrepresented. Student movements (like #RhodesMustFall, #FeesMustFall) have pushed institutions to confront symbols, syllabi, and structures, prompting curricular reforms and more use of African languages and scholarship. Progress is real but uneven; resistance and systemic inertia remain. The takeaway for learners: mindset matters: see African knowledge as foundational, not supplemental. 

 Second, the authors detail material and structural constraints that limit research and access. Many universities are chronically underfunded; faculty juggle heavy teaching and admin loads with few incentives for sustained research, prompting talent loss and dependence on short-term, donor-driven projects. In the global system, funding priorities, conference locations, visa hurdles, and publishing biases centre the Global North and sideline African voices. Still, green shoots are visible: initiatives foster more equitable collaborations; some associations are lowering financial barriers; and institutions are revising promotion criteria to value research contribution.  

Bottom line: Inequality is real, but it is also tractable when mindset and mechanism move in tandem.

The action steps we can take are:

  • (1) for Students: join curriculum-change efforts; seek courses and readings led by African scholars; organise peer research circles and open-access sharing.
  • (2) for Faculty: redesign modules to centre African scholarship and methods; co-create syllabi with students; adopt fair authorship and data-sharing practices.
  • (3) for Departments/Universities: ring-fence time and seed funds for research; reward mentorship and community engagement; support South-South networks; create travel/visa support for conferences. (4) for Research Offices: prioritise Africa-led agendas in grants; require equitable PI roles and budget control for African partners.
  • (5) Publishers/Funders (especially in the Global North): expand fee waivers and open-access pathways; broaden reviewer pools; back Africa-defined priorities with unrestricted, multi-year funding.
  • (6) All actors: measure success by contribution to SDG 4 (quality education), local relevance, and knowledge plurality – not just citations or rankings. The mindset shift is simple and powerful: treat African universities not as peripheral participants but as leaders in global knowledge – then resource them accordingly. 

FULL ARTICLE HERE