African Higher Education: An International Reference Handbook [Hardcover]

Damtew Teferra (Author), Philip G. Altbach (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0253341868 | ISBN-13: 978-0253341860 | Publication Date: October 2, 2003

Since their founding, African colleges and universities have faced numerous challenges. While most are legacies of colonialism, these institutions are affected by particular conditions and realities in their home countries. This book is the first comprehensive survey of all aspects and dimensions of higher education in Africa today. It includes a historical overview of higher educational resources in Africa; descriptions of the size, scope, and nature of higher education in each African nation; and analyses of current and timely topics, such as the state of private higher education in Africa, the financing and economics of higher education, gender issues, distance education, information and communication technologies, and university/state relations. The work concludes with an extensive bibliography of Ph.D. dissertations and other resources on the subject. Relevant for policymakers, development agencies, and university researchers, teachers, and administrators worldwide, African Higher Education is an important and basic reference.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Damtew Teferra is a research associate at the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College.

Philip G. Altbach is J. Donald Monan, SJ Professor of Higher Education and Director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 714 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (October 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253341868
• ISBN-13: 978-0253341860
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.9 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #698,042 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rather than anchoring himself in a narrowly defined disciplinary location, Dr. Lulat is by training and by research inclination a social scientist--in the sense that his entire academic career (education, research, and teaching) has been, and continues to be, fundamentally multidisciplinary--as attested by the principal area to which most of his work belongs: Africana Studies (which comprises both African Studies and studies of the African Diaspora throughout the world). It is not without reason that in addition to his doctorate, he holds three masters degrees and a postgraduate certificate across several disciplines. Moreover, his educational career spans universities in four countries on three continents. His work, therefore, comes out of a pioneering and now well-established scholarly tradition of multidisciplinary research that has been the hallmark of Africana Studies. In keeping with one of his mantra's that "the present is always historical," Dr Lulat's current research focus is the political economy of world history from an African perspective that seeks to locate Africa's place in that history.