Speaking at the British Council’s Going Global Africa 2024 conference in Abuja, Nigeria last week (November 26-28), leading diplomats and civil servants led the charge in urging UK and African stakeholders to forge and strengthen educational partnerships.
“Many of you in your own countries are working hard to build your own tertiary systems and we realise that we need to work in stronger partnerships with you,” the UK high commissioner to Nigeria Richard Montgomery told delegates – who included representatives from higher education institutions and civil servants from both Africa and the UK.
He pointed to Africa’s enormous proportion of young people, with around 70% of the continent’s population estimated to be aged under 30.
“Africa’s growing. Its youth population is huge,” Montgomery advised delegates. “The population is going to be 2.5 billion people by 2050… so you need to harness the demographic dividend and we need to work harder to build institutions that are sustainable and more resilient.”
“We all know that social progress and economic growth and prosperity rely on a healthy tertiary education system,” he added.
According to Nigeria’s minister of education, Dr Olatunji Alausa, the West African nation shares the ambition to forge international educational ties.
“We need… national universities that are willing to partner with institutions and governments across Africa and the United Kingdom in a mutually beneficial, high quality, transformational educational partnership,” he told delegates.
He pointed to headwinds that Nigerian universities are facing, including financial challenges and the difficulties in catering to the huge numbers of young Nigerians seeking a university education – despite stressing that these barriers “are by no means peculiar to Nigeria”. However, he said that the Nigerian government was “poised” to tackle these challenges.
Meanwhile, the UK’s international education champion Sir Steve Smith stressed the “huge appetite” from UK higher education institutions to forge partnerships with their African counterparts.
He revealed that after the conference he would be leading a delegation of 11 UK institutions to meet potential partners in Abuja, after which the group would travel together to do the same in Lagos as a way “to explore opportunities for sustainable, equally beneficial TNE partnerships with Nigerian institutions”.
Sir Steve stressed that the “focus” of the Going Global conference was “firmly on Africa” and set out the UK’s ambition to create new partnerships with African institutions.
“For the UK government, the key word in all of this is partnership. This is about partnerships. We’ll be tackling one of the most pressing priorities of our time, which is ensuring the sustainability and the relevance of tertiary education systems and institutions in Africa,” he said.
We’ll be tackling one of the most pressing priorities of our time, which is ensuring the sustainability and the relevance of tertiary education systems and institutions in Africa
Sir Steve Smith, UK international education champion
“The theme is a critical one – one that can help us identify the key solutions to equip Africa’s youth with the skills and opportunities they need to lead the continent into a prosperous future.”
Sir Steve highlighted the UK’s government’s international education strategy, which he said sets out “the importance of education as a tool for social and economic transformation”.
“In Africa, this has to include listening to African voices and leaders to develop respectable and equitable UK Africa partnerships that enhance people-to-people links that support research, collaboration and align educational goals with the evolving needs of society, all on the basis of mutual respect,” he said.