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Preface
If one takes the rational view that education in Africa is the critical nexus at which we must resolve the continent's complex development dilemma, then the story of African's higher education landscape needs constant telling and repeating—from many and varied standpoints. This book, written from and with 21st-century realities, is a small addition to the continuing and urgent search for solutions to the continent's development dilemma. The book utilizes, and traverses, a cross-functional perspective, premised on the belief that the higher education debate in Africa is necessarily multilevel, multifunctional, multidimensional, multinational, and global.
Chapter 1 sets the necessary background for the rest of the book, with its focus on the need for strategic planning in educational institutions. Arguing that education—especially improved higher education in Africa—is the common thread needed (but still largely inadequate) to transform economic, social, political, and cultural factors and realities in most countries on the continent, chapter 1 makes the point that African universities can and should set strategic goals around at least