Transnational education in sub sahara Africa: Strategic partnerships

Abstract

Bohm, Davis, Meares, and Pearce (2002) predicted a fourfold increase in the number of students pursuing an international higher education degree from 1.8 million students in 2000 to 7.2 million in 2025. Some of these students will be international exchange students from the continent of Africa, taking courses in Western countries, but a significant population will prefer to remain in their home country and use online learning facilities, and technologies as substitutions (Knight, 2012) (Waterval, Frambach, Driessen, & Scherpbier, 2015). A major catalyst is Transnational Education (TNE) defined as movement of people, programs, curricula in HEIs across national jurisdictional borders (Harris, 2019). TNE is a subset of educational internationalization and can be part of development projects, academic exchange programs, and commercial initiatives. How can African countries improve HEIs? Advances from online learning, and cross border partnerships may be an answer (Harris, 2019). Consider Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya uniquely positioned to develop effective HEIs, beyond the present-day footprint.