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Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions pp 1–6Cite as

African University Traditions, Historical Perspective

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Introduction

The early African university education/higher education system was characterized by its entire or partial indigenous origin. In contrast, contemporary African universities are of European colonial legacy. Despite its earlier experiences, the continent is now the world region with the lowest university enrollment. Its 54 countries have major differences in institutional capacity. The numbers and types range from a single public university in some small countries like São Tomé and Príncipe to dozens of universities like in South Africa and Egypt and more than a 100 universities and colleges like in Algeria and Nigeria. In the 2015–2016 and 2016–2017 editions of international ranking system, no African institution was among the first 100 universities. While this ranking is controversial, it suggests Africa’s standing in global knowledge production.

In a recent book, Göransson and Brundenius (2011) analyze the evolving mission of universities in the changing local and global...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA

    N’Dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba

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  1. N’Dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba
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Correspondence to N’Dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea (Republic of)

    Jung Cheol Shin

  2. CIPES, Faculty of Economics, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Pedro Teixeira

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Assié-Lumumba, N.T. (2017). African University Traditions, Historical Perspective. In: Shin, J., Teixeira, P. (eds) Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_10-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_10-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9553-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9553-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education

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