Workshop on the Implications of WTO/GATS for Higher Education in Africa |
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Accra Declaration on GATS and the Internationalization of Higher Education in Africa |
| The Association of African Universities (AAU), in collaboration with UNESCO and the Council on Higher Education (CHE) (South Africa), organized a regional workshop on the theme: “The
Implications of WTO/GATS for Higher Education in Africa”. The
workshop was held from 27-29 April 2004 in Accra, Ghana. It succeeded
in bringing together high profile participants, including trade and
education ministers and other senior policy-makers, Vice-Chancellors
and other leaders of public and private universities, heads of regional
research and higher education organizations, representatives of national
and regional regulatory agencies, sub-regional and international organizations,
donors, advocacy networks, as well as consultants, journalists and
other major stakeholders. A total of 67 participants mostly drawn from
16 African countries, and others coming from Europe, the Middle East,
and Canada, took part in the workshop.
The workshop participants explored the issues related to GATS and its
implications for higher education in Africa, noted the
transformations in African higher education, identified the gaps in
research and advocacy in the context of the internationalisation of
higher education in Africa, and unanimously adopted the attached Declaration
to affirm their commitments and guide the concerted actions of all
major stakeholders.
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| Accra Declaration on GATS and
the Internationalization of Higher Education in Africa
(29 April 2004, Accra, Ghana)
Preamble
It
is imperative to reaffirm the role and importance of higher education
for sustainable social, political and economic development and renewal
in Africa in a context where ongoing globalisation in higher education
has put on the agenda issues of increased cross border provision, new
modes and technologies of provision, new types of providers and qualifications,
and new trade imperatives driving education. Higher education in Africa
has to respond to these challenges in a global environment characterised
by increasing differences in wealth, social well-being, educational opportunity
and resources between rich and poor countries and where it is often asserted
that ‘sharing knowledge, international co-operation and new technologies
can offer new opportunities to reduce this gap (Preamble to World Declaration
on Higher Education for the 21st Century, 1998, p. 19).
We
participants in this workshop on the Implications of WTO/GATS for Higher
Education in Africa assembled in Accra, Ghana from 27 – 29
April 2004:
Recalling
- the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (1948), Article 26, paragraph 1,
which affirms that ‘Everyone has the right to education’ and
that ‘higher education shall be equally accessible to all
on the basis of merit.’
- the World Declaration
on Higher Education for the 21st Century (1998), which affirms
the role of higher education in the ‘consolidation
of human rights, sustainable development, democracy and peace, in
a context of justice’, and which asserts that ‘international
co-operation and exchange are major avenues for advancing higher
education throughout
the world’, and further that the ‘principles of international
co-operation based on solidarity, recognition and mutual support,
true partnership that equitably serves the interests of the partners
and the
value of sharing knowledge and know-how across borders should
govern relationships among higher education institutions in both
developed
and developing countries and should benefit the least developed
countries in particular’
- the AAU Declaration
on the African University in the Third Millennium (2001), which
calls for ‘the revitalisation of the African
University and for a renewed sense of urgency in acknowledging the crucial
role it should play in solving the many problems facing [the] continent’,
and which urges African universities to ‘give priority to effective
and positive participation in the global creation, exchange and application
of knowledge’ and urges African governments to ‘continue
to assume the prime responsibility for sustaining their universities,
in partnership with other stakeholders’ because of the ‘critical
role of universities in national development’
Noting
- the negative impact of decades of structural adjustment policies
and inadequate financing on the viability of higher education institutions
as teaching and research institutions in Africa
- the fact that the regeneration of higher education institutions in many
African countries is at an early and vulnerable stage
- the fact that regulatory regimes for the licensing/registration, quality
assurance and accreditation of higher education institutions and programmes
are undeveloped in many African countries or in early stages of development
accompanied by problems of poor resourcing and capacity
- the fact that various forms of internationalisation in higher education,
including cross-border provision, are already underway and that national,
regional and international mechanisms to foster and regulate international
co-operation in higher education have been established by national
governments, by regional associations and by UNESCO and other bodies
- the
ambiguities, silences and lack of clarity in GATS provisions, the
lack of transparency in GATS deliberations, and insufficient
knowledge and understanding of the full implications of GATS for
higher education,
especially in developing country contexts
Declare
- A renewed
commitment to the development of higher education in Africa as
a ‘public mandate’ whose mission and objectives must serve
the social, economic and intellectual needs and priorities of the peoples
of the African continent while contributing to the ‘global creation,
exchange and application of knowledge’ (AAU Declaration
on the African University in the Third Millennium). We therefore
caution
against
the reduction of higher education, under the GATS regime, to
a tradable commodity subject primarily to international trade
rules and negotiations,
and the loss of authority of national governments to regulate
higher education according to national needs and priorities.
- Continued support for multiple forms of internationalisation
in higher education which bring identifiable mutual benefits to African
countries
as much as to their co-operating partners in other countries and regions.
We therefore re-affirm our commitment to reducing obstacles to international
co-operation in respect of knowledge creation, exchange and application,
to the enhancement of access to higher education and to increasing
academic mobility within Africa itself.
- A commitment to the strengthening of national institutional capacity
and to developing national and regional arrangements for quality assurance,
accreditation and the recognition of qualifications, and to greater
co-operation and exchange of information on quality assurance issues relating
to cross-border
provision, including active support for and participation in activities
to give effect to the Arusha Convention and to NEPAD objectives.
- A commitment to engagement with the political, educational and economic
implications of GATS for higher education in Africa. We therefore call
on African governments and other African role players to exercise caution
on further GATS commitments in higher education until a deeper understanding
of GATS and the surrounding issues is developed and a more informed
position is arrived at on how trade related cross-border provision in higher
education
can best serve national and regional development needs and priorities
on the African continent.
Resolve to
- promote greater availability of information on GATS and
Higher Education in Africa, and more debate and discussion among relevant
stakeholders
in order to increase understanding of the potential dangers
and/or opportunities from having cross-border higher education regulated
by GATS.
- promote further research on the nature and extent of cross-border
provision in Africa and on quality assurance and accreditation systems
appropriate for the development of higher education in Africa.
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Workshop on the Implications of WTO/GATS for Higher Education in Africa
