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African universities

A missionary calling to Africa for Christian academics: Part 2

Bujumbura, Burundi. Photo from What might missionary-educator life look like in Bujumbura, Burundi at HAU? (World Harvest Mission at Hope Africa University. Accessed 10/2/2013. 8:26 AM).

Models

There are perhaps as many models for helping as there are universities in Africa. I hope through this forum to learn more from other readers of the variety of options and discuss what may or may not be effective.

Much of the pioneer work in post-secondary education in Africa was done by starting bible colleges. Faculty were most often not traditional US academics with advanced degrees (apart from seminary degrees). Many of these schools have become universities, but in doing so struggle to attract sufficient master’s and doctoral staff to meet true university accreditation requirements.

At the other extreme, I think that history shows that support of US based graduate training for African academics often ends in brain drain.

Christian (and secular) volunteerism has proved helpful, but some options for Americans with private African universities can waste and abuse short-term and long-term donations of money, talent and time. Short-term and mid-term experiences of inadequately prepared individuals, often facing language barriers and finding students at a level below what they expected does not use resources wisely. Frustration leads to broken relationships, inadequately educated students and damage to the careers of volunteer faculty.  [Read more…] about A missionary calling to Africa for Christian academics: Part 2

A missionary calling to Africa for Christian academics: Part 1

Editor’s note: I had the privilege of meeting G. Randall Bond, M.D. at Urbana12. Randy was one of a number of people who visited the Emerging Scholars Network (ESN) booth to share not only a vision for, but also a commitment to next steps in “academics-as-mission.” A hearty “Thank-you!” to Randy for sharing his passion with the Emerging Scholars Network via our blog. I encourage our readers to share their thoughts/insights on the topic with Randy. He truly enjoys engaging in Transformative Conversations and I am hoping for the Emerging Scholars Network to be on the cutting edge of larger “academics-as-mission” conversations in a number of contexts in preparation for Urbana15. To God be the glory! ~ Thomas B. Grosh IV, Associate Director of ESN, editor of ESN’s blog and Facebook Wall.

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“Territory size shows the proportion of people worldwide enrolled in tertiary education, who live there” – Tertiary Education. Worldmapper: The World as You’ve Never Seen It before. Accessed 10/2/2013. 9:42 am.

The case for academics to consider “academics-as-mission” in sub-Saharan Africa.

The call to Christian missions in Africa in the 21st Century is quite different than even 40 years ago. The Holy Spirit is now primarily using Africans to advance Christ’s church in Africa. But our brothers and sisters are still in great need. African church leaders are asking for help in transforming their communities — through development, not charity. But development is not just about village based projects and micro-enterprise loans.

Before the turn of the 21st century university education was de-emphasized across Africa in favor of primary education. But the population of sub-Saharan Africa has almost tripled in the last 40 years. More Africans than ever are completing secondary education. The number seeking university education is up from 1% of the population in 1970 to 6% today — though this number varies country to country.

It is now understood that rapidly expanding economies also need university graduates — for government, for business and as professionals. Therefore private and public universities in Africa are starting and expanding at an incredible pace. Between 2000 and 2011 the number of institutions recognized by the Inter-University Council for East Africa almost tripled — from 33 to 87. In this context it is impossible for qualified African faculty to fill the needed teaching positions, especially in fields where advanced training has been limited, government and the private sector compete for limited talent and the “brain-drain” has taken potential faculty out of Africa. Consequently, there is great need for expatriate professors.

I believe that God’s grace to us, spiritually and materially, calls us to participate in responding to this need. One option is to get personally involved as a professor helping to educate the next generation of doctors, nurses, business leaders, entrepreneurs, engineers, architects, secondary teachers, university professors, lawyers and political leaders. [Read more…] about A missionary calling to Africa for Christian academics: Part 1