Australia cannot keep ignoring the sweeping demographic and economic changes set to put Africa centre stage by the end of the century, and universities must take matters into their own hands by making higher education a “central pillar” of Australia-Africa relations.
A new policy brief argues that the time has come for Australia to “take a global view on the higher education proposition” and produce “Africa offers” that “look beyond the balance sheet at much more substantial value creation”.
“Governments regulate and fund higher education, but ultimately it is universities which must…carve out opportunities,” says the Higher Education Futures Lab briefing. “Australia won’t know until the 2050s if African higher education is doing what Asia did in the mid-1990s, but it sure feels that way.”
The paper argues that Australia’s success in attracting “tuition cash” from Asia has encouraged an African blind spot that reflects neglect across government, industry and society. Canberra has just nine embassies and high commissions in a continent of 54 countries, of which many locals would struggle to “place more than a handful”.
Media coverage of Africa is relentlessly negative and the school curriculum tends to focus on colonial history. There are roughly 10 weekly flights between Australia and Africa, compared with 60 to the US and 100 to China.
