A Neglected Impediment to True Africanisation of African Higher Education Curricula: Same Agenda, Differential Fee Regimes

Abstract

This paper focuses on various international fee regimes within African universities and aims to sensitize debates around this highly neglected issue. My primary goal is not only to challenge arbitrary policy, but also to produce a useful sociological framework capable of enabling Africans to participate in their own educational development wherever they may choose to study. This paper targets African curriculum policy-makers and stakeholders and by focusing on the differential fee regimes, it is possible to show how such policy impinges upon current discourse on the Africanisation of higher education curriculum in very complex and subtle ways. Without disregarding recent efforts, however, I want to suggest that promoting an all-inclusive higher education environment within Africa without a single unified tuition policy negates all efforts toward an African curriculum agenda. An example is drawn from the thinking of the Bologna Process and the challenges such development presents to the African continent. The paper concludes that until differential policy regimes within African tertiary institutions are included on the agenda of various efforts toward the harmonization of African higher education, the journey towards a true Africanised, decolonized and all- inclusive education curricula for Africans may remain a mirage.